LAHORE: A bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) rejected a petition to restrain the Pakistan Awami Tehreek-led political alliance from launching their protest drive from January 17.
The LHC also referred a petition seeking a restraining order against the planned protest movement to LHC Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah to constitute a larger bench to hear the case.
It issued notices to the federal and provincial authorities to submit their response to the petition on next hearing.
Earlier, a joint committee of anti-government parties let by Dr Tahirul Qadri’s PAT formally sought the Punjab government’s permission for carrying out a protest on Jan 17 on the Mall Road.
According to reports, a joint request to hold a protest against the 2014 Model Town incident was submitted on Saturday by representatives of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Awami Muslim League (AML), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) and PAT to Lahore Commissioner Abdullah Khan Sumbal and Lahore District Commissioner Sumair Ahmad Syed.
The request stated that the committee “has decided to hold a protest rally at Charing Cross Chowk on the Mall Road on Jan 17 to protest [against] the denial of justice to 14 Shuhada (martyrs) and about 100 injured in the carnage and shootout [that occurred] on June 17, 2014 at Model Town, Lahore at the hands of Punjab Police; and the Punjab government’s complacency [is] resulting in inordinate delay. Please make necessary administrative and security arrangements for the event on the date and venue mentioned above.”