Islamabad administration rejects Tahirul Qadri’s rally request

Citing overcrowding and capacity as bottlenecks, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration officials formally rejected a request by Minhajul Quran International (MQI) to hold a rally in front of parliament.

The capital administration asked the party to change of venue for the January 14 rally, proposing the lush fields of the F-9 Park on the city’s outskirts, a national daily reported. However, the MQI leaders immediately shot down the proposal.

A report published in Express Tribune said that the chief of MQI’s Punjab chapter, Ahmed Nawaz Anjum, had formally requested the Islamabad administration to allow the party to hold a peaceful rally at D-chowk.

A delegation of MQI leaders, including Ahmed Nawaz Anjum and the head of the party’s Islamabad chapter Syed Bashir Hussain, filed the plea at the office of the chief commissioner Islamabad on Friday. The administration, however, rejected the appeal after analysing the situation.

The MQI officials assured the city administration that the organisation would bear all expenses on the arrangements for the stay of the participants in Islamabad. They informed the authority that the participants would be provided with make shift tents, beds and other necessities.

They further informed the authorities that the MQI had arranged mobile lavatories for the participants of the rally which would be deployed near the venue and along the rally’s route. The MQI officials insisted they would take complete responsibility for maintain the peace of the rally.

Following the disagreement  and evidently unmoved in their demand to hold a rally at the Parliament House the MQI leaders decided to take the matter up to the interior ministry to decide.

The Islamabad administration justified its decision, saying that the place could not accommodate more than four million people. In its view, it would exceed Islamabad’s total population if they bring such a huge amount of people to the capital.

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Posted by Web Desk on Jan 5 2013. Filed under National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.