ISLAMABAD: The federal government approached the Supreme Court on Monday with a plea for an early hearing of its contempt petition against the PTI leadership for allegedly reneging on assurances they would not head to Islamabad’s D-Chowk during the Azadi march on May 25 last year.
A two-page application recalled that when the Supreme Court took up the case on Dec 2, it issued a directive for fixing of the case in the following week. But no hearing has taken place since then.
The government requested the apex court to hear the case on April 26.
The government had moved the contempt petition against the PTI after it “disregarded” the May 25 order by the Supreme Court, on a petition filed by the Islamabad High Court Bar Association, that the marchers should not go ahead to D-Chowk.
The petition had sought a directive that no hindrance should be caused in the free movement of citizens in any part of the country.
The Islamabad High Court directed the capital’s administration to allow the PTI to hold a gathering at the ground located between Sectors H-9 and G-9 in view of an assurance on behalf of the party’s top leadership that their rally would not cause any inconvenience or blockage of Srinagar Highway.
But the PTI leadership did not comply with the court’s order, the government argued, as the party chief exhorted his supporters to converge on D-Chowk.
The PTI supporters marched towards the point in a “pre-planned and pre-conceived manner”, the petition said, and when police confronted them, they started destroying public and private properties, setting ablaze police vehicles, trees and bushes.
A number of people were injured during skirmishes between PTI supporters and the law enforcement agencies.
Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2023
