PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has set up a special cell in Peshawar to oversee activities and arrangements in the province regarding the opposition’s Azadi March.

Chief Minister Mahmood Khan chaired a meeting here on Monday that discussed the overall law and order situation ahead of the Azadi March.

Senior officials briefed the chief minister about the opposition’s preparations and strategy for the Azadi March.

The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl and its allies, including the Awami National Party, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have planned to enter Punjab via the Grand Trunk Road to march on Islamabad to join the main rally.

JUI-F provincial chief Maulana Attaur Rehman, ANP central president Asfandyar Wali Khan and leaders of other parties will lead the rally from KP.

Minister warns baton-wielding mobs of action

Giving details of the meeting, information minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai said the monitoring cell would review the law and order situation in the province.

He said the cell would report to eight-member ministerial committee headed by law and parliamentary affairs minister Sultan Mohammad Khan.

The minister said the government won’t create hurdles to marchers if they remained peaceful.

He said the government believed in democratic values and the people had the right to hold rallies.

“The government will not allow baton wielding mobs to enter Islamabad,” he said asking people to cooperate with the government in that respect.

The minister said the interior ministry had issued a threat alert regarding the opposition’s protest, so the government would take all necessary measures.

He said the government would use all resources to maintain law and order situation in the province.

“We will not stop anyone from going to Islamabad to participate in Azad March but we expect that the opposition will not violate its agreement signed with the government,” he said.

Commenting on the information minister’s statement, provincial spokesman for the JUI-F Abdul Jalil Jan said on one hand, the KP government insisted that the holding of peaceful protest was the constitutional right of all citizens but on the other, it had placed shipping containers on main roads across the province to block marchers.

He said apart from Peshawar, the government had placed containers on the entry and exit points of all districts showing its unwillingness to allow marchers to go to Islamabad peacefully.

Mr Jan said the opposition had already chalked out its plan and despite hurdles, the people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would reach Islamabad on Oct 31.

He said the main rally from Peshawar would set out for Islamabad at 12:30pm on Oct 31.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2019