A September 23 compliance deadline and a Home Department helpline turn the IHC’s September 14 order into an enforcement regime — on a day the Centre floated Governor’s Rule for KP, jailed all three of Imran Khan’s sisters, and emptied 24 capital schools to house police.
LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: The Punjab government has banned the use of any state resource for marches or processions heading to Islamabad. Official funds, vehicles, machinery and personnel are all covered, and no government employee may be compelled to take part in a political march. The Home Department has set up a helpline to report violations, and every department must file a compliance report by September 23.
The order implements the Islamabad High Court’s September 14 ruling. It lands six days before PTI’s planned march on the capital, and while Jamaat-e-Islami is running a separate march against the petroleum levy. On the same day, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi warned that anyone trying to “storm” Islamabad would face severe consequences, and said legal options for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including Governor’s Rule, were under consultation.
The opposition’s response was split. JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman accused the government of denying citizens the right to protest. JI said talks had reached a fifth round without result. Senate Opposition Leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas offered the government a structured dialogue.
Under the Punjab directive, no official funds, vehicles, machinery or staff may be used for any march or procession towards Islamabad, and no government employee can be forced to join a political march. A circular has gone to administrative officers, police and law enforcement agencies across the province. Every department has been told to pass the instructions down to subordinate and autonomous institutions. The Home Department has set up a dedicated helpline for reporting violations, officials found in breach face immediate departmental action, and all departments must report on implementation by September 23.
The order follows the text of the IHC ruling closely. The court directed provincial governments, including chief ministers, to ensure that no government resources, public funds or officials are used directly or indirectly to take part in or facilitate any march towards Islamabad. It also barred the use of official vehicles, machinery and equipment to help participants. A larger bench headed by Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar issued the order on a petition concerning PTI’s planned protest, and also ruled that no party or leader has a legal right to block roads in Islamabad.
The 37-page verdict went further. It declared that aggression by one federating unit against another or against the federation, including by march or procession, is unconstitutional and unlawful. The petitioner had told the court that the KP chief minister had announced he would lead the march personally.
Punjab is not the first to act. Three days earlier, KP Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah directed all department heads to ensure that no official resources facilitate PTI’s September 27 march. He also told employees not to comply with any instruction to assist a march, and to report such pressure to the chief secretary or the police chief. KP Inspector General Zulfiqar Hameed issued a parallel order barring police officers from facilitating any Islamabad-bound rally. Both officials had submitted affidavits to the court at a September 11 hearing on the non-use of government machinery.
While speaking in Lahore, Mohsin Naqvi said storming Islamabad would benefit no one and urged PTI not to walk into a blind alley. He said the government would implement the IHC’s orders and draw up a comprehensive strategy against any attempt to disrupt the capital. Naqvi claimed most of PTI’s leadership did not support a long march and that the party was unclear about its own demands. He said this time the capital would not simply be shut down while protesters arrived. Te government would build a permanent plan, and the federal government would play a full role.
The sharpest element of the briefing did not appear in the initial reports. Naqvi said the federal government was consulting the Law Ministry on legal options for KP, including Governor’s Rule, with the final decision resting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
He paired that with an attack on the KP government’s absence from the funerals of the six soldiers killed in Hangu on Sunday. Those prayers were held in Peshawar and attended by Naqvi, KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, the Peshawar corps commander and senior officials. Naqvi said he had never seen provincial ministers stay away from the funerals of personnel killed in the line of duty, and that the martyrs belonged to Pakistan rather than any political group. He noted a suicide attack on a mosque and two or three further attacks in KP over the past ten days.
On the PTI founder’s health, Naqvi said the required medical facilities had been provided, that Imran Khan had undergone a check-up overnight, and that all treatment would be provided within the law.
The crackdown that began with Aleema Khan on Sunday widened on Monday. Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi were detained for 30 days under Section 3 of the MPO on the Lahore deputy commissioner’s orders, reportedly on police recommendation. Police picked up both sisters, along with their nephews, from Aleema Khan’s residence and reportedly took them away in an armoured vehicle. The children and other relatives were later released; the sisters were sent to jail. They are held under the superintendent of Kot Lakhpat Central Jail.
PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan condemned the first detention on Sunday, calling it a first step towards worsening the situation and saying the party would announce its response shortly.
Islamabad authorities have decided to close 24 educational institutions from Tuesday for security reasons. Police personnel are being housed in them, according to sources. Several schools in sectors G-6, F-6, F-7 and G-7 are on the list, along with designated institutions in Tarnol, Sangjani, Sihala and Rawal Dam. All other schools in the capital will stay open.
At a press conference, JI Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman demanded the complete abolition of the petroleum levy. He said five rounds of talks had been held and challenged the government’s arithmetic on the levy. He claimed it had shifted a burden of Rs135 billion onto the public and that rising inflation had made ordinary life unbearable. The first phase of the march had been completed successfully, he said, and JI had no intention of arson or violence. He added that a cut in the policy rate would benefit the economy.
JI deputy emir Liaquat Baloch called the levy oppression of the poor and announced that JI’s train march would leave Karachi on Monday. He said federal minister Ahsan Iqbal had telephoned him the night before, and that the government committee had set out its many constraints in talks. Protests would continue until a result was reached, he said. D-Chowk remained the focal point in Islamabad, though the final protest venue had not been decided.
Baloch drew a clear line with PTI. Its right to protest was democratic, he said, but PTI had its own protest and JI had its own position and its own march. The party ended its month-long Lahore sit-in last week to focus on Islamabad. Hafiz Naeem had earlier said the government told JI it was helpless on the levy because it was an IMF demand.
At a press conference in Islamabad, the JUI-F chief said the capital had been filled with containers and no one was being allowed to protest. He painted a bleak picture of law and order where dacoits ruling Sindh, banks robbed in broad daylight in Balochistan, and no effective system to stop either. He said JUI-F’s leadership had met in Peshawar to set the party’s position. The meeting had been planned for Karachi but was moved because members travelling from Balochistan could not reach it.
He alleged that powerful institutions were running the country without regard for law, the Constitution or any moral code. Debt pressure was now far greater than under the previous government that had been criticised for borrowing, he said, while inflation had risen sharply. He claimed KP ministers were being picked up, and that Senator Shakoor Khan had been stopped at an airport from travelling to China. Measures like these, he said, were turning people into rebels.
Fazlur Rehman separately telephoned Liaquat Baloch on Monday to offer condolences on the death of former JI deputy emir Hafiz Muhammad Idrees.
Speaking to reporters at Parliament, Senate Opposition Leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas urged the prime minister to form a committee of political leaders, with negotiating teams named by both government and opposition. Political committees on both sides, rather than a single individual, could find a way through, he said. Whenever the government chose to sit down, he added, the opposition’s door was open.
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