ISLAMABAD: A local trust filed in the Supreme Court on Friday a petition requesting it to declare the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s planned Aug 14 march on the federal capital as illegal and prejudicial to public peace and security of the country.

Petitioner Tariq Asad, president of the Shuhada Foundation Trust, also requested the court to order the government to restrain PTI workers from assembling in Islamabad.

Umme Hassan, Principal of Jamia Hafsa, is chairperson of the trust.

“The sit-in and rallies in the federal capital announced by Imran Khan will encourage political instability in the country without any rhyme or reason, resulting in economic crisis,” the petition said, adding that democratic norms expected everyone to abide by the law and the constitution to maintain peace and harmony and promote welfare of the people.

It said that rallies and demonstrations aimed at toppling an elected government by unlawful means would only create an uncongenial environment and prove to be prejudicial to the security of the country and violation of fundamental rights of the people. The PTI’s protest was irrational at a time when the country was already at war coping with terrorism and foreign attacks on its territory.

The petition asked whether blocking the roads and bringing the life to a standstill were not a violation of the right to freedom of business and trade guaranteed under Article 18 of the Constitution. The demand for dissolving the government elected under the law of the land and holding fresh elections was unwarranted and extra-constitutional, it argued.

The petition named the secretaries of law and defence and Imran Khan as respondents.

Tariq Asad also requested the Supreme Court to determine whether or not the scope of summoning the armed forces in aid of civil power was within the authority of the federal government under Article 245.

He said Mr Khan had never raised voice against the governments during the past two regimes rather supported former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf in his 2002 referendum. But soon after the present government came to power, the PTI started a movement against it to create political instability without any reason.

The petition said citizens had every right to assemble under Article 16 of the Constitution, but it was not an unguided and unrestricted right and it appeared from the speech of Mr Khan that the assembly of people might not be peaceful. It said the PTI chief had threatened to paralyse the country if the government tried to put him under house arrest. Mr Khan also warned that his party’s workers would besiege police stations across the county if law-enforcers tried to obstruct the PTI’s ‘Azadi march’.

Published in Dawn, Aug 9th, 2014