ISLAMABAD: The government of Shehbaz Sharif must lift its total ban on opposition protests, which violates the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, rights group Amnesty International said, after dozens of participants were arrested and wounded in a police crackdown on a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) election rally in Lahore.
Pakistan has been in political turmoil since pro-democracy protests led by former prime minister Imran Khan erupted after his ouster in April of last year, which the multi-party Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government attempted to put down.
On Wednesday, the police used water cannons and fired tear gas to disperse his supporters in Lahore. At least one rallygoer was killed, reportedly in custody, and more than 40 were arrested for defying a surprise ban on holding rallies in the city, police said.
The developments followed Khan’s launching of provincial election campaigns Tuesday for Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where his party has held a majority in past rounds of voting.
“The blanket ban [on political rallies] is at odds with Pakistan’s obligations to recognise, respect and facilitate the right to freedom of peaceful assembly as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” Amnesty said in a statement.
“Section 144 [a colonial-era law] should never be used to unduly restrict the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and it needs to be repealed.”
🇵🇰 Pakistan: The blanket ban on protests in Lahore is at odds with Pakistan’s obligations to recognise, respect and facilitate the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. It must be lifted immediately: https://t.co/cUiBycQBLo
— Amnesty International South Asia (@amnestysasia) March 8, 2023
Amnesty called on the government to immediately lift the ban and “all the people arrested solely for exercising their right to protest peacefully should be immediately and unconditionally released.”
Subsequently, in an interview with Al-Jazeera, Khan accused the government of trying to get him out of the way to contest the elections.
“The government and its backers are petrified of elections because so far in the last eight months, out of the 37 by-elections, my party has won 30 out of them,” Khan told the outlet.
“They want to either arrest or disqualify me because they are scared [of the fact] that my party is one of the most popular in Pakistan’s history,” he said.
— With AP
