Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s ruling party lawmakers have introduced a bill to give authorities in the capital, Islamabad, the power to regulate and ban public rallies and gatherings.
The introduction of the Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Bill 2024 in the Senate, Pakistan’s upper house of parliament, came a week before the main opposition group led by the jailed former prime minister on Monday. Imran KhanThe Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party organized a rally in the city.
If Khan’s party is denied permission to hold its demonstration, Pakistan could see another spat between political rivals, months after a national election the PTI alleged was rigged.
Khan has been the founder of PTI A year in jail He pleaded guilty in several cases before the February vote. He is on trial from jail in another case.
What does the bill propose?
The bill, proposed by Irfan-ul-Haq Siddiqui of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), would empower Islamabad city officials to assess the prevailing law and order situation before granting permission for public gatherings.
The bill would allow the government to designate areas within Islamabad as “red zones” or “high-security zones”, banning all assemblies in those regions.
Additionally, the eight-page bill will mandate that public gatherings take place only in designated areas and follow specified times and routes.
It asserts that the right to peaceful assembly, though fundamental, is subject to “reasonable restrictions” in the interest of “public order, morality and state security”.
The proposed law argues that regulating assembly is necessary to protect the rights of all citizens, including safety, security and free movement, and says similar regulations exist in other countries.
The bill has drawn strong opposition from the PTI, which has alleged that it specifically targets the party.
Opposition opposition forced Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani to refer the bill to a parliamentary committee. However, the committee cleared the bill late on Tuesday and set the stage for a vote on it.
Does the bill target PTI?
The PTI was scheduled to hold a mass rally in Islamabad on August 22, but canceled the event citing security concerns.
The rally was called primarily to protest the delay in the Supreme Court’s delivery of a detailed judgment in a related case. reserved seats In Parliament.
The 336-member lower house of Pakistan’s parliament, called the National Assembly, has 70 reserved seats – 60 for women and 10 for members of minority communities. These seats are allocated to parties based on their performance in national elections. A party or coalition needs a total of 169 seats to form the government.
In this year’s elections, PTI-backed candidates won the highest number of seats, but no party could secure a majority. Khan’s rivals – the PML-N and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – joined hands and formed a coalition government.
But the PTI insisted that the election was rigged and the results were tampered with, saying it had won more than the 93 seats officially allotted to it. The government has asserted that the election was not rigged.
Tensions between the PTI and the government worsened after the main opposition party was denied its share of reserved seats, prompting it to go to court. Last month, in a major victory for the PTI, the Supreme Court said the Khan-led party was eligible for its share of reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies.
But the court is yet to deliver its detailed verdict in the case, which along with Khan’s release from jail, is the main agenda of a PTI rally planned in Islamabad on Sunday.
The government rejected the proposed bill targeting the PTI.
The PPP’s Salim Mandviwala, one of the legislators behind the bill, told Al Jazeera that the PTI would “complain whatever the government brings to Parliament regardless of its merits”.
Mandviwala said several recent protests in Islamabad, including one organized by a far-right religious party and traders protesting inflation, were proof that the city’s public gatherings had “become a nuisance”.
“The White House [in the United States] There is a designated place for protest. The Assembly of Norway has a designated place for holding rallies. But here in Islamabad, everyone wants to protest in the red zone and block the main roads, which makes it difficult for everyone,” he said.
The Red Zone in Islamabad refers to the area around the city’s Constitution Avenue, on which the Parliament, offices of the President and Prime Minister and other key government buildings are located. The diplomatic enclave, which houses most of the embassies, is also part of the red zone.
There is also Pakistan is scheduled to host Next month’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Islamabad is its most high-profile gathering of global leaders since 2012 when it hosted leaders from several developing nations.
But PTI Senator Ali Zafar, who introduced the bill in Parliament on Monday, said specifically Targets the party. He said that even if permission is given for the rally, it can be canceled at any time and the organizer can be jailed for three years.
He said that no-objection certificate (NOC) was issued by the authorities to the PTI several times in the past to hold the rally, but the notification was withdrawn shortly before the event.
“When we received the NOC for the September 8 demonstration, it seems they want to repeat the same trick by withdrawing it, and through this bill, they can give it legal cover,” he told Al Jazeera.
Growing safety and security concerns
In recent months, Pakistan has seen an increase in violence by armed groups, particularly in its northwestern provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern Balochistan, both bordering Afghanistan.
According to a report by the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, there were 59 such incidents across the country in August with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan being the most affected, including attacks. August 26 In which more than 70 people died.
Mandviwala said diplomats from many countries living in Islamabad have expressed concern about frequent road closures due to protests, questioning the government’s ability to secure its capital.
“Many of these diplomats approached me and asked me if the government could not control the 10-mile [16km] Radius Here, how Balochistan is expected to be controlled. It shows that there is no writ and no system,” he said.
However, political analyst Benazir Shah said officials in Islamabad are already under investigation for alleged use by the government against opposition parties, particularly the PTI.
“With this bill, it seems the government wants to further expand the powers of city officials by allowing them to ban gatherings and jail violators for up to three years,” she told Al Jazeera.
A Lahore-based analyst said the regulation of public gatherings comes at a time when the government is facing opposition not only from political opponents, but from civil society groups.
“Multiple protests have also been held by government employees, trade unions and religious groups. The move could potentially be an attempt to curb all such gatherings,” Shah said.
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