The Sindh home department has imposed Section 144 across the province for a period of one month to maintain law and order in the interest of “public and peace”, a notification issued on Sunday said.

Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code is a legal provision that empowers district administrations to prohibit an assembly of four or more people in an area for a limited period.

According to the notification, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, “Section 144 is imposed to prevent all kinds of protests, demonstrations, sit-ins, and rallies and assemblies of more than five persons throughout the Sindh Province, for a period of one month.

“The Government of Sindh is satisfied that in order to maintain law & order situation and to prevent miscreants from assembly in a manner prejudicial to public safety in the province of Sindh, it is necessary to take immediate measures.”

It added that the concerned police stations were given the authority to register complaints under Section 188 of the PPC (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) against people violating the ban.

The notification was issued after the religiopolitical party Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) began marching towards Islamabad to express ‘solidarity with Palestinians’, after clashing with the police in Lahore on Friday.

The law enforcers repeatedly tried to contain the procession near the group’s headquarters by erecting barricades and containers and using tear gas and other crowd-control measures. At present, the group is camped at Muridke.