PHC moved to stop govt from blocking Azadi March.

PESHAWAR -- A senior lawyer associated with the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl on Thursday moved the Peshawar High Court seeking orders for the government against creating hurdles on main highways in the province to the party's Azadi March on Islamabad.

Obaidullah Azhar, the convener of the Jamiat Lawyers Forum, filed the petition requesting the court to stop the government from placing shipping containers and other hurdles on roads as such steps are meant to deny the people their fundamental right of free movement.

The petition filed through lawyer Farooq Khan said the right of staging Azadi March was exercised in all civilised political societies, where no hurdles were created for such protests by the state functionaries, but the current government was bent on creating hurdles in an unprecedented manner to stop the JUI-F's march on Islamabad by using force.

JUI-F lawyer insists govt to deny people free movement by placing shipping containers on roads

The respondents in the petition are the KP government through its chief secretary, secretaries of home and administration departments, commissioners of Peshawar, Kohat, Malakand and Hazara divisions, and deputy commissioners of Peshawar, Nowshera, Kohat, Karak, Lakki Marwat and DI Khan.

The petitioner said the JUI-F along with other opposition parties rejected the 'rigged' election of 2018, so it had planned to march on Islamabad against it.

He said the same right was exercised by current Prime Minister Imran Khan against ex-premier Nawaz Sharif for 126 days but the former government didn't create any hurdle to the protest and it rather provided an amicable environment to it.

The petitioner claimed that after the announcement of the Azadi March, the provincial government began placing shipping containers on main routes to stop people from marching on Islamabad.

He said the JUI-F consisted of religious scholars and people, who were peaceful and had never acted like anarchists and that it had organised peaceful 'Million Marches' in KP and other provinces.

DENGUE CASE: A Peshawar High Court bench was informed on Thursday that 6,048 people had so far tested positive for dengue in the province but the disease claimed no life.

Director general (health services) Dr Mohammad Arshad told Justice Qaiser Rasheed and Justice Ahmad Ali...