Govt, opp denied permission for rallies in Red Zone

After the Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, was broadened to the Red Zone of the federal capital, the district administration on Monday refused to give permission to both the federal government and the opposition to hold political rallies in the capital's Red Zone on March 27 in the wake of no-trust move against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

According to Express News, the administration had given permission to the ruling party to organise its rally at Parade Ground and asked the opposition parties to use Sector H-9 as their venue for theirs.

The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration is of the opinion that since both the government and the opposition were seeking the same venue, there was a possibility of a clash between the participants. It also said that holding rallies in the Red Zone would also create security concerns.

The ruling party then requested the deputy commissioner to allow its rally to take place at the Parade Ground in Islamabad.

Read more: Opp announces rally on 23rd to counter govt move

Later, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) announced the change of venue for its power show, moving the political gathering from D-Chowk to Parade Ground.

The ruling party announced the development in a tweet, attributing the move to the requirement for accommodating the number of people it believes would participate in the rally. Similar sentiments were expressed by Senator Faisal Javed, who said that the D-Chowk would not be an appropriate venue for the “biggest rally” in the country’s history.

Earlier, the PTI had announced that it would hold a “massive power show” at Islamabad’s D-Chowk on March 27 and pull out one million people to the streets to “express confidence in their leader [PM Imran Khan]”.

The ruling party is expected to give a plan of action on opposition's no-confidence motion, which it believes would fail.

Ali Nawaz Awan tweeted that the premier had assigned them the task of gathering one million PTI activists and supporters for the party’s ‘grand power show’.

Also read: PM’s speech ‘blatant admission of defeat’: opp

“The prime minister, as always, is determined to overcome this crisis,” he added.

To counter government's move, the anti-government alliance – Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) – as well as other opposition parties had announced a joint public meeting at the Constitution Avenue in Islamabad on March 23 for which the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Awami National Party (ANP) have also been invited.

The date was later changed to March 25 owing to 48th session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers and Pakistan Day Parade in the federal capital.