PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday expressed displeasure over frequent blocking of Khyber Road near the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly building by protesters and summoned the Peshawar deputy commissioner and its capital city police officer (CCPO) for responding to the issue.

A bench consisting of Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim fixed October 19 for the next hearing into a pro bono petition filed by senior journalist Mohammad Jamshed Baghwan, seeking the court’s orders for the respondents, including the provincial government, to allot a suitable place or ground for rallies by political parties, associations, unions and other groups to prevent disruption of the people’s right to free movement.

Justice Roohul Amin observed that frequent blocking of important roads including Khyber Road by protesters showed failure of the government. The bench observed that if the district administration could not enforce its writ then the relevant officers had no right to remain on their posts.

Oct 19 fixed for next hearing into pro bono petition filed by journalist

Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim observed that holding peaceful protest was right of every citizen, but at the same time rights of other people could not be violated by causing inconvenience to them by keeping roads blocked for many hours.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa advocate general, Shumail Ahmad Butt, informed the bench that the government was preparing a law for declaring protests on major roads illegal and would also introduce punishments for violators.

He said that the government placed ban on protests near the assembly’s building and the protesters were asked to record their protests at Jinnah Park near GT Road.

The petitioner’s counsel, Ali Gohar Durrani, contended that under Article 15 of the Constitution, the right to freedom of the people’s movement couldn’t be brought to an end with the protest by a handful of individuals, who blocked the road near the provincial assembly an caused problems to patients, elderly people, children and woman.

He said that GT Road served as the main artery of Peshawar whereas Suri Pul on it was a critical junction linking it to Khyber Road, Bacha Khan Chowk, Jail Road and Peshawar city.

Mr Durrani said that the area outside the provincial assembly on Khyber Road was frequently ‘misused’ and often attracted street protesters, causing massive traffic jams. He pointed out that on Monday the road was blocked by protesting teachers for many hours, causing hardships to commuters.

He said that rallies on that artery not only caused hardships to commuters and patients travelling in ambulances but also increased traffic pressure on feeding roads in the old city of Peshawar.

The petitioner requested the court to restrain the district administration of Peshawar from granting ‘no objection certificate’ to any political party, association and organisation to block roads or hold rallies that resulted in the disruption of free movement of people.

Mr Durrani also sought the court’s orders to declare that holding of any rally or protest on roads in front of the provincial assembly building was illegal and representatives of the protesters should be allowed to submit their protest note or charter of demand to the government’s representatives without disrupting the flow of traffic on the roads.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2022