The Sindh government has decided in principle not to allow the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) to hold a public gathering near the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah scheduled for December 25, Pakistan Today learnt on Friday.
The decision was made a few days ago in a high-level meeting of officers of law enforcement agencies and was presided over by Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan.
Sources said the PPP and its coalition partner, the MQM, reached a mutual understanding that the PTI would not be allowed to hold a public gathering in Karachi, and agreed that the Home Department would impose Section 144 in the city to restrict the PTI rally.
They said that the Sindh government had asked the PTI to postpone its rally in the city and hold the gathering on some other day at some other venue, and in case Imran Khan insisted on holding the public gathering in the city, the Home Department would ban his entry into the province for some time.
The PTI Sindh leadership meanwhile vowed that the public gathering would be held at the scheduled venue at all costs.
PTI Sindh President Naeemul Haq said the PTI had written to the Sindh chief secretary asking for the permission to organise a public gathering in the ground adjacent to Quaid’s mausoleum but the chief secretary replied after more than 20 days that holding a public gathering at the mausoleum was against Quaid-e-Azam Trust Resolution. The PTI then wrote an application to the Quaid-e-Azam Trust chief engineer, who in turn wrote to Quaid-e-Azam Trust Chairwoman Samina Khalid but no clear reply had been received so far.
PTI leader Israr Abbasi said the party had gone through the trust’s resolution and had found no clause barring a public gathering in the premises.
Sindh govt unlikely to let PTI rally near Quaid’s mausoleum
