Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has warned that anyone violating the Islamabad High Court’s orders on protest will face contempt proceedings (Express Tribune).
What was said
Naqvi said that if protesters “took the law into their own hands, security personnel would not remain silent spectators”.
Islamabad Advocate General Manzoor Ahmad said security personnel would ensure no protesters advanced toward the capital. Minister of State for Interior Senator Talal Chaudhry also spoke.
Government machinery will not be permitted for protest use in Islamabad.
The distinction the government is drawing
Between a lawful political rally and an attempt to advance on the capital — treating the second as a threat to public order rather than an exercise of assembly.
That is a defensible reading of the High Court judgment, which prohibits occupation rather than procession. It is also broader than the judgment: “no protesters advance toward the capital” is not what the court ordered, and a march that moves without occupying is not obviously unlawful under it.
What is already in place
| | | |—|—| | Additional personnel sought | 15,000 | | Containers requested | 1,000; about 500 loaded vehicles impounded | | PTI activists detained under public order powers | more than 30 | | PTI workers arrested, southern Punjab | 54, per the party | | Punjab Section 144 | 13-17 September, now expired |
The two dates
Jamaat-i-Islami marches on the 20th, over the petroleum levy. PTI marches on the 27th, over Imran Khan’s imprisonment.
This newspaper has noted that these are different events — one a demand about a costed tax the government could answer, the other a political confrontation it cannot — and that the state’s response to both has been the same equipment.
The countervailing order
On 18 September the IHC separately barred the harassment or arrest of PTI’s Islamabad leaders before the march, and summoned the SSP Operations in person after claims of night raids.
So the same court has restrained both sides within a week.
What is not established
No figures have been published for deployments or arrests since the judgment. Neither PTI nor JI has responded publicly to the contempt warning, and no application has been reported seeking clarification of what the judgment permits.
[Image: The Express Tribune]
