LAHORE: PTI Chairman Gohar Khan has filed a petition in the Lahore High Court seeking permission to hold public rallies.

The petition argues that the PTI is a political party and whenever it announces a rally or gathering, the police start arrests and harassment of its workers.

It said the PTI central secretariat has also been illegally sealed by the government.

The petition pleads that the PTI should be allowed to hold public rallies and gatherings throughout the province, and that the arrest of its workers and the registration of cases against them be stopped.

It also asks the court to immediately order unsealing of the PTI’s central secretariat.

The Punjab home department, the inspector general of police and other government authorities have been made respondents in the petition.

OBJECTION: The Lahore High Court on Thursday overruled an office objection on a petition of the PTI against the power of the ECP to withdraw election symbol of a political party.

Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh heard the petition as an objection case.

PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan and other leaders filed the petition.

The registrar office had objected to the petition’s maintainability and directed that the petitioner should approach the Islamabad High Court.

However, the judge overruled the office objection and instructed that the petition be fixed for a hearing before any appropriate bench.

The petition states that S215 of the Elections Act 2017, which provides for eligibility of a party to obtain election symbols, is against the Constitution.It pleads that the right to contest the election under a common symbol cannot be taken away from the candidates of a political party. It says the ECP being a constitutional body is not a court or a tribunal, therefore, any power wrongly assumed by it for taking away fundamental rights is illegal in terms of Article 8 of the Constitution.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2024