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       LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has announced a country-wide protest to be featured at pre-decided locations in all big cities after Juma prayers (today).

       PTI Punjab acting president Hammad Azhar has urged all party leaders, workers and people belonging to all segments of society to come out for protest since “it is a last chance to save Pakistan as well as supremacy of constitution and law”.

       In view of the aggressive stance of the PTI to hold protests in all cities across the province, the Punjab government has imposed Section 144 across the province for two days — Oct 18 (today) and 19 (tomorrow).

       The notification issued by the Punjab home department says all kinds of protests, processions and other such activities had been banned in view of prevailing law and order situation and threat perceptions and any kind of protest or procession might provide soft target to terrorists and miscreants, which not only pose security threats but also likely to cause danger to public peace and order as well as inconvenience to public at large.

       Bhachar flays CM for calling PTI terrorist party

       On the request of law-enforcement agencies, the Punjab government has also ordered closure of all educational institutions in the province.

       In a video message, Hammad Azhar said the country was reeling under martial law-like situation and cited the examples of `abduction’ of Senator Dr Zarqa Soharwadi’s son and MNA Zain Qureshi’s wife.

       “It is the last chance that people from all segments of society should come out to protest and cool ever-increasing fascism in the country,” he said and urged the chiefs of security agencies to protect Pakistan and Pakistanis.

       Meanwhile, PTI Lahore president Sheikh Imtiaz Mahmood announced that the protest in Lahore would be held at Liberty on Friday (today) at 2pm.

       OPPOSITION LEADER: Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Malik Ahmad Khan Bhachar strongly condemned Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz for calling PTI a “terrorist party” and added that expressing solidarity with victims seeking their legitimate rights was no terrorism.

       Speaking at a news conference at Lahore Press Club, Mr Bhachar said the chief minister was busy hurling charge-sheet against the PTI to cover her own failures and bad governance. He said the chief minister was also trying to become women rights champions but did not see how Dr Yasmin Rashid, Aaliya Hamza, Zartaj Gul and other women leaders were being treated.

       Referring to the private college incident, the opposition leader said the chief minister should not have dragged educational institutions into politics and asserted that the police mishandling triggered hype. He alleged that journalists and students were implicated in terrorism cases on the instructions of the chief minister.

       Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2024