The needless arrest of (current) PTI chairman, other leaders

By The Taurean

Analyst says dragging new law on protests into controversies will prove counterproductive

IN an example of how a seemingly legitimate law can easily be dragged into a needless controversy, police arrested chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Barrister Gohar Khan and the party’s other leaders including Sher Afzal Marwat from the Parliament House in Islamabad on Monday night, for allegedly violating the newly imposed restrictions on holding public rallies and demonstrations.

According to several credible news organisations, heavy contingents of police were deployed outside the parliament while all entry and exit routes to the Red Zone were blocked from D-Chowk, Nadra Chowk and from Serena and Marriott hotels. Mr Gohar and Mr Marwat were arrested for allegedly violating regulations mentioned in the newly enacted Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Bill, 2024, Geo News said.

Media organisations quoted sources as claiming that some other opposition lawmakers were also arrested from the Parliament House. However, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur managed to evade detention, they said.

Police had filed cases against several leaders of Imran Khan’s party at the Noon Village and Sangjani police stations. According to the first information report (FIR), charged PTI workers attacked police teams with batons and pelted them with stones on Sunday night when officers tried to stop them from “violating their Islamabad rally’s route”.

Police deployed for security resorted to tear gas-shelling and baton-charging the party activists, arresting 17 of them from the scene. The PTI staged its much-hyped power show in Islamabad with party workers and police clashing on Chungi No 26, on the outskirts of the capital.

The law in focus

The Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Bill, 2024 sailed through the Senate and National Assembly amid protests by the opposition a few days before the PTI’s rally. It enhanced the powers of federal capital’s authorities to control public gatherings. President Asif Ali Zardari signed the bill into law just a day before the public meeting.

The bill empowers the district magistrate to regulate and ban public assemblies in the federal capital, proposing a punishment of up to three years and/or a fine on the members of an “unlawful assembly”.

The bill says the ban under the law would remain in force for the duration specified by the district magistrate, which may be extended if the conditions necessitating the ban persist. “An officer-in-charge of a police station, on the instruction of the district magistrate, may command any assembly likely to disturb the public peace to disperse. It shall then be the duty of the members of such an assembly to comply and disperse accordingly,” it reads.

Meanwhile, an analyst said the law in question seems to have imposed “reasonable restrictions” on political rallies in the federal capital, particularly in view of the frequent use of rallies, marches and sit-ins to shut down the city in an effort to achieve dubious political goals. The two parties that seem to have acquired expertise in this regard are the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan and PTI.

“The PTI, in particular, has been raising ad nauseam its slogan of ‘holding a peaceful protest is the right of every voter under a democracy’, ignoring the fact that roads are meant for travelling, not for frequently staging sit-ins, and that laying siege to the parliament is illegal,” he said.

“To our collective horror, in 2014 we saw two parties almost besieging the parliament for more than 100 days. On one occasion we saw a leader of the same dharna (sit-in) exhorting his supporters to stop parliamentarians from leaving the Parliament House. That was a straightforward violation of norms and decency, yet there was no hue and cry over the matter,” said the legal expert.

A perusal of laws governing protests in democracies across the world shows that almost all jurisdictions impose reasonable restrictions on rallies and sit-ins, he added. “Blocking roads and pavements without prior permission is not allowed. In case you want to hold a rally at a public park then you need to seek permission from the local authorities about the venue as well as the time for your protest. And blocking traffic flow and even pedestrian movement without prior approval is a no, no.”

The analyst, however, said the police seem to be dealing with the PTI’s Sunday rally too strictly. “The rally was indeed held at the designated place; so it did not cause disruption on a large scale. Not sticking to the timeframe ordered should have been ignored. What’s the big deal if the PTI people sat at the venue for an additional two hours? That should have been condoned.”

He was of the view that overuse of the Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Bill, 2024 or even its harsh implementation may make it controversial. “The law should be used judiciously. If people begin seeing this as an oppressive tool or a black law, then it will become a liability for the government.”