Imran reschedules rally to steer clear of 'trap'.

LAHORE -- Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Sunday postponed the election rally until Monday (today) after the party failed to get relief either from the Election Commission or the Lahore High Court against caretaker Punjab government's order of imposing Section 144 in the provincial capital.

The interim Punjab government had imposed Section 144 late in the night in the wake of a PSL match in the Qaddafi Stadium and a marathon race in the city.

Initially, the PTI was determined to hold the rally but the former premier stopped the party leaders and workers, telling them not to be trapped in the legal ploy.

'The Punjab chief minister and police want to provoke clashes to file more sham FIRs against PTI leaders and workers and to use [it] as a pretext for postponing elections,' the PTI chairman tweeted less than an hour after the scheduled time of the rally from his residence to the Data Darbar - from a different route that did not disrupt PSL match or marathon race route.

Still, Mr Khan questioned how Section 144 could be imposed on political activities, especially when the election schedule had been announced. In a statement written in capital letters, Mr Khan stated, 'I am telling all PTI workers not to fall into this trap.'

In the same thread of tweets, the former prime minister said it seemed Section 144 had illegally been imposed yet again solely on the PTI election campaign as all other public activities were going on in Lahore.

'Only Zaman Park has been surrounded by containers and heavy police contingent,' Mr Khan said and explained that this clearly meant that the chief minister and police wanted to provoke clashes to file more sham FIRs as they did on March 8.

'No ban on political activities'

On the other hand, caretaker chief minister Mohsin Naqvi in his tweet stated that there was 'no ban on political activities'. He stated that all political parties were allowed to campaign.

'We have restricted rallies and political activities for today as we have [a] PSL cricket match, team movements and [a] marathon in Lahore, which were all planned and announced much in advance,' he added.

In a notification on Sunday, the administration also allowed the PTI to take out the public rally that entails 'high-security risk due to the general and specific threats against political gatherings and previous instance of attack on the ex-prime minister'. The permission was given after an undertaking by the organiser to the 'effect...