LAHORE: A citizen on Thursday withdrew his petition against the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) rally to amend it after an objection to it by the Lahore High Court (LHC).

Justice Jawad Hassan of the LHC also observed that the opposition parties could not be directly asked not to hold public gatherings in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

One Irfan Ali had filed the petition, asking the court to restrain the opposition parties of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) from holding a public meeting in Lahore on Dec 13.

Justice Hassan took up the petition as an objection case and upheld an office objection on it for making a prayer to the court to order the political parties to stop their meetings.

With the judges’ permission, the petitioner’s counsel, Nadeem Sarwar, withdrew the petition to file the same after making necessary amendments.

The petitioner had submitted that the opposition was going to hold a public rally at the Minar-i-Pakistan in Lahore despite a health emergency imposed by the government in wake of the pandemic. He said the PDM had been holding rallies in different parts of the country ignoring a ban on public gatherings imposed by the government. He claimed that the meetings by the opposition parties had become the main source of the coronavirus spread the country.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2020