Legislators belonging to Pakistan’s ruling party have introduced a bill seeking to empower officials in the capital, Islamabad, to regulate and even ban public rallies and gatherings.
The introduction of the Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Bill 2024 in the Senate, the upper house of Pakistan’s parliament, on Monday came a week before the main opposition group, led by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan‘s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, had planned a rally in the city.
If Khan’s party is denied permission to hold its demonstration, Pakistan could see another showdown between the political rivals, months after national elections that the PTI alleges were rigged.
PTI founder Khan has been in prison for a year after his conviction in several cases ahead of the February vote. He is on trial from jail in other cases, despite rights groups calling his detention “arbitrary”.
What does the bill propose?
The bill, proposed by Irfan-ul-Haque Siddiqui of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), would give Islamabad city officials the authority to assess the prevailing law and order situation before granting permission for public gatherings.
The bill also would allow the government to designate areas within Islamabad as “red zones” or “high-security zones”, which would ban all assemblies in those regions. Additionally, the eight-page bill would mandate that public gatherings occur only in designated areas and adhere to specified times and routes.
It emphasises that the right to peaceful assembly, while fundamental, is subject to “reasonable restrictions” in the interests of “public order, morality and state security”.
The proposed legislation argues that regulating assemblies is necessary to protect the rights of all citizens, including their safety, security and free movement, and says similar regulations exist in other countries. The bill has triggered strong opposition from the PTI, which alleged it specifically targets the party.
