Islamabad sealed with containers amid threats of religious and political protests

Islamabad, Aug 22 (IANS) Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, turned into a fortress on Thursday with dozens of containers forcing closure of several roads with heavy deployment of law enforcement forces following the cancellation of a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) of an anti-government protest planned by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and protest call by religious parties, including the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) under the banner of Majlis-e-Tahaffuz-e-Khatme Nabuwwat against a Supreme Court decision in the Mubarak Sani case.

Anticipating widespread protests, the local administration, which had cancelled the NOC, imposed Section 144 in the city, barring assembly of people and also closed all educational institutions for the day.

Later in the day, the PTI announced its decision to postpone its protest rally and rescheduled it for September 8.

The government maintained that it did not want to take any chance considering the Supreme Court hearing and also the presence of Bangladeshi cricket team in the country which is currently touring Pakistan for a Test series.

On Wednesday, the capital administration of Islamabad decided to cancel the NOC for PTI, less than 24 hours before the scheduled public gathering in Tarnol area. PTI had earlier announced that it would go ahead with its planned gathering even after its NOC was revoked.

"It is concerning that the government might try to exploit the rally to incite unrest and blame it on PTI. They are scared and are trying to find ways to orchestrate cases against us," said senior PTI leader Azam Swati.

Imran Khan's party has been struggling to hold a political gathering in the capital for the past five months with the local administration delaying grant of any permission to hold such an event. Even after a permission is granted, it ends up being revoked a few hours later.

The latest episode is the second time the capital administration has cancelled the NOC issued to PTI for holding a political gathering at Tarnol.

The government maintains that it had detailed meeting with the Inspector General Police, Deputy Commissioner, senior officers from the Chief Commissioner’s office, officials of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) after which it was decided that there will be serious law and order concerns if the gathering is allowed.

On the other hand, several religious parties have also taken to the streets in Islamabad, protesting against the Supreme Court of Pakistan's verdict in the Mubarak Sani case.

Tehreek-e-Khatam-e-Nabuwat, an umbrella name for different religious parties, has called for a protest in front of the Supreme Court after the July 24 Supreme Court verdict in the case, maintaining and ruling that while Ahmadis are declared non-Muslims, they retain the right to profess and proliferate their religion, provided they do not publicly use Muslim terms or introduce themselves as Muslims.

In February 2024, Mubarak Ahmed Sani, an Ahmadi, was accused of violating the Punjab Holy Quran (Printing and Recording) Amendment) Act 2021 by distributing the proscribed book 'Tafseer-e-Sagheer'. However, the Supreme Court maintained that the alleged act occurred in 2019, before it was criminalised in 2021.

The Supreme Court decision was widely criticized by the religious groups who demanded the federal and the Punjab government to challenge the decision and ensure punishment for Sani.

The Punjab government later filed a review petition in the Supreme Court while a petition was also filed by the Federal government on directions of the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.