Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan announced the start of his party’s election campaign in Lahore on Tuesday. He said that the campaign will start with a rally from March 8 which is celebrated as International Women’s Day. In honour of the day, many women and marginalised people participate in Aurat March.
Despite the announcement of the rally, people came out in huge numbers to participate in Aurat March. However, many of them were stuck in traffic for hours, especially on Mall road, Lahore where police were deployed for Khan’s rally.
Later in the evening on Wednesday, Khan called off the party’s rally in Lahore in the wake of the Punjab government’s crackdown on participants following the imposition of Section 144 in the provincial capital.
Now, the Punjab Home Department has also banned “all kinds of protests, demonstrations and sit-ins” in Lahore for seven days, citing the “overall security situation” in the wake of recent “wave of terrorism and threat alerts”.
Surprisingly, it has been reported that the home department sent a letter to PTI leader Dr Yasmin Rashid that public gatherings are not advisable as women march is also going to take place. But clearly, they didn’t care.
Chairman Khan went ahead as always, leaving us wondering that didn’t PTI female leaders tell Khan about Aurat March.
