{"id":32001,"date":"2017-11-20T13:32:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T08:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=32001"},"modified":"2017-11-20T16:53:05","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T11:53:05","slug":"ahsan-iqbal-hopeful-of-ending-islamabad-sit-in-within-24-48-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=32001","title":{"rendered":"Ahsan Iqbal hopeful of ending Islamabad sit-in within 24-48 hours"},"content":{"rendered":"

Court issues show-cause notices for contempt of court to interior secretary, chief commissioner and Islamabad inspector general <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

ISLAMABAD Nov 20 (TNS):<\/strong> After appearing before the Islamabad High Court for non-implementation of the court’s order to clear the Faizabad sit-in on Monday, Interior\u00a0Minister Ahsan Iqbal appealed to the protesters once more to end their sit-in peacefully.<\/p>\n

Addressing the media after the hearing, Iqbal said once more that the government wants to avoid taking action for fear of bloodshed<\/p>\n

The minister claimed that there are conspirators who want a “Model Town or Lal Masjid”-like episode once again, referring to government action against political workers in Lahore in 2014 and seminary students in Islamabad in 2007, respectively.<\/p>\n

He added that the\u00a0Khatam-e-Nabbuwat laws are stronger than before.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“The impression that we compromised on Khatam-e-Nabbuwat is not correct. I am hopeful that we will resolve the issue in 24-48 hours,” he said further.<\/p>\n

The minister said the government will make sure that citizens do not face such situations anymore.<\/p>\n

Adjourned until Thursday\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hearing the matter in front of Iqbal, Justice Siddiqui asked why court orders to end the protest are not being implemented.<\/p>\n

The minister, taking sole responsibility for the failure to end the sit-in, said\u00a0he wants to resolve the matter peacefully and asked the court for more time.<\/p>\n

Upon hearing the interior minister’s request, Justice Siddiqui adjourned the hearing until Thursday.<\/p>\n

The court also issued show-cause notices for contempt of court to the interior secretary, chief commissioner and Islamabad inspector general.<\/p>\n

“I believe we\u2019ll be able to bring the protesters to our side,” said Iqbal after the hearing.<\/p>\n

Court expresses displeasure<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the hearing began on Monday, Justice Siddiqui had expressed reservations saying that the government did not implement his order to clear the protest by10am\u00a0Saturday despite his clear-cut directions to the local administration.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The judge said that he will issue a \u2018contempt of court\u2019 order in this regard and ordered the interior ministry’s top officials to be present in court today.<\/p>\n

Commuters in the twin cities continue to face hardship as the protest sit-in at Faizabad Interchange, linking the main Islamabad-Rawalpindi route, by religious parties enters its\u00a0fifteenth day today.<\/p>\n

Sources said the daily deployment of police and paramilitary personnel is costing the government Rs5 million every day.<\/p>\n

Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal has called an emergency meeting of religious scholars belonging to all schools of thought over the ongoing protest at 3pm today.<\/p>\n

The consultative meeting, to be held at the Religious Affairs Ministry, is the latest effort on behalf of the government to bring the protest to a peaceful end.<\/p>\n

Sources said the meeting will have a single-point agenda: how to resolve the crisis in the capital.<\/p>\n

Iqbal, Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Raja Zafarul Haq and State Minister for Religious Affairs Pir Aminul Hasnaat have previously met a number of protest leaders in view of reaching a breakthrough to end the sit-in.<\/p>\n

The interior minister in his press conference on Sunday said that all options are available for dispersing the Islamabad protest, adding that a security operation is the last option as the government will try to avoid bloodshed.<\/p>\n

Addressing the media alongside State Minister for Religious Affairs, Iqbal had said the government will go “to any extent” to resolve the issue, including a security operation, adding that protesters blocking the Faizabad Interchange are engaging in a propaganda to incite emotions of the people.<\/p>\n

“Our forces have the capability to clear the area but we are keeping the operation as the last option. This is not a sign of weakness but we are doing this out of respect [for the matter of finality of Prophethood].”<\/p>\n

The protest has nothing to do with religion or religious demands and “such organisations” take these steps to advance ahead of elections, he said.<\/p>\n

“The protesters demand that Law Minister Zahid Hamid should step down; however, there is no proof that he is responsible for the mistake. A committee has been formed in this regard which will probe the matter so there is no justification for the protest,” he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Court issues show-cause notices for contempt of court to interior secretary, chief commissioner and Islamabad inspector general ISLAMABAD Nov 20 (TNS): After appearing before the Islamabad High Court for non-implementation of the court’s order to clear the Faizabad sit-in on Monday, Interior\u00a0Minister Ahsan Iqbal appealed to the protesters once more to end their sit-in peacefully. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,23],"tags":[118,589],"class_list":["post-32001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad","category-national","tag-islamabad","tag-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32001"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32069,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32001\/revisions\/32069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}