The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday ordered the city’s deputy commissioner to decide by 5pm upon PTI’s petitions for permission to hold a rally in the provincial capital tomorrow.

A three-member bench, constituted by LHC Chief Justice Aalia Neelum, took up the petitions a day ago and sought the personal appearance of top civil brass, including the Punjab chief secretary, the police chief, the commissioner, the DC, and the advocate general.

The PTI has already launched its mass contact campaign to muster support for the much-hyped Lahore power show at the Minar-i-Pakistan ground.

The petitions for tomorrow’s gathering had been filed by PTI leaders, including ex-MNA Aalia Hamza Malik, MPA Imtiaz Mahmood Sheikh and party’s Lahore Vice President Akmal Khan Bari.

Today, the bench — headed by Justice Farooq Haider and also including Justices Tariq Nadeem and Ali Zia Bajwa — resumed hearing the pleas.

While the party had approached the DC for a no-objection certification (NOC) for the rally, the LHC judge direc­ted the registrar’s office to fix for hearing a separate petition that the PTI had filed seeking permission for holding the rally.

Each time the party sought permission to hold its power show in recent months, the Punjab Home Department imposed Section 144 to ban political gatherings.

The department did so on Aug 21 and ensured PTI leaders and workers did not reach Islamabad to attend the Aug 22 power show, which was postponed at the eleventh hour.

The hearing

At the outset of the hearing, various officers concerned, including Inspector General of Punjab (IG) Dr Usman Anwar and Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman, appeared before the court.

When Justice Haider noted that Punjab Advocate General Khalid Ishaq had not come, Additional Advocate General (AAG) Balighur Rahman told the court that the former had a prior engagement in the Supreme Court.

The Punjab government’s counsel then requested the court to declare the PTI’s petitions as unmaintainable.

Rahman argued that Malik had not approached the relevant forum to seek permission for the rally and denied her claims of “harassment”, saying there was “no truth” in them.

The counsel further apprised the court that after PTI MNA Omar Ayub approached the district administration for the event’s permission, the Lahore deputy inspector general (operations) and the district intelligence committee held a meeting to deliberate upon it.

“Reservations were voiced on the PTI’s past attitude,” AAG Rahman said, adding that “speeches full of hatred” were made at the party’s Sangjani gathering.

“Punjabis, be ready. The stage is about to be set up,” the AAG quoted PTI’s absconding Hammad Azhar as saying in the Swabi power show in August.

Justice Bajwa asked the petitioner whether they had submitted an application to the DC for permission.

“Yes, we gave an application and the application was given by PTI,” petitioner’s lawyer Ishtiaq Khan said.

Upon the Judge’s inquiry, DC refuted the claim and stated: “We have not received any application for the permission of a rally.”

The judge then questioned the PTI lawyer whether the former party member had the permission of the party to submit a petition for the request.

“Please show us any documentation which tells us that the party had permitted Aalia Hamza to submit a petition,” the Judge said.

The judge then directed the PTI to file a request for permission for the rally, adding that the court would want to conclude the case by today.

The petition was subsequently submitted to the DC in the courtroom.

The court, consequently, ordered the DC to decide upon the request by 5pm today.

Earlier, the same full bench disposed of a petition seeking to block PTI’s rallies in Punjab, declaring it unjustified.

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari raised the question of why “people who want to spew hatred and swear on the stage” be permitted to organise a rally.

“You will never hear any political talk from their stage,” she said while speaking to Geo News.