September 28, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 15, 1428

PESHAWAR, Sept 27: As the Supreme Court took suo motu action against the barricading of Islamabad on Thursday, the civil society in the NWFP demanded that the court also take notice of frequent blockage of roads linking the Frontier province with Punjab.

For the second time in a month, the government of Punjab recently blocked the Khairabad bridge that links the NWFP with Punjab to stop opposition activists belonging to the province from reaching Islamabad.

Previous and present governments have been blocking the Khairabad bridge, a vital link, to stop supporters of opposition parties from reaching Islamabad.

Legal and constitutional experts say that while no action was taken in the past to stop this illegal and unconstitutional act that invariably affects hundreds of thousands of people commuting daily between the NWFP and Punjab, it is time for the apex court to take action.

“Every citizen shall have the right to remain in, and, subject to any reasonable restriction imposed by law in the public interest, enter and move freely throughout Pakistan and to reside and settle in any part thereof,” Article 15 of the Constitution states. This article was recently invoked by the Supreme Court while allowing PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif to return home.

When asked what affects such roadblocks could have on national harmony, federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Salim Saifullah said roads linking Peshawar with Islamabad were blocked on certain days to maintain law and order in the capital. “We don’t want any law and order situation in the capital.”

He said no provincial government had approached him to raise the issue of roadblocks and the problems these were causing to commuters.

Official sources said the provincial government had last year raised during an Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee meeting the issue of repeated checking at checkposts set up on roads by the Punjab government. However, they acknowledged, the provincial government had never raised the issue of roadblocks.

“There is no law to stop the movement of general public from one city to another,” a well-placed official said.

During blockades, it was easy for people to enter the neighbouring Afghanistan than to reach Islamabad via Punjab, commented one official.

There are some who compare the roadblocks in Pakistan with India’s frequent act of disallowing the use of its airspace for flights between the then East and West Pakistan and the imposition of restrictions by Israel on the movement of Palestinians between the West Bank and the Gaza.