Several political, religious parties and civil society organisations are openly violating section 144 in the city by staging protest demonstrations and walks at Jinnah Avenue in contravention of Interior Ministry directives.
Following the directives of Interior Ministry to ban protests and other public gatherings inside the Red Zone, the high ups of ICT administration blocked D-Chowk with barbed wires and cement blocks and removed a protest camp for the recovery of missing persons from the Red Zone.
The Interior Ministry further directed the police if any public rally is held inside the Red Zone, the Superintendent of Police (SP) and the Station House Officer (SHO) concerned would be held responsible and action would be taken against violators. However, so far the high ups of capital police have taken no action against the concerned SP and SHO.
However, the district administration has failed to ban protest demonstrations at Jinnah Avenue or near D-Chowk despite specifying Fatima Jinnah Park for the protest demonstrations. Due to growing protest demonstrations hundreds of citizens and employees moving to and from Pakistan National Council of the Arts, Pakistan Television, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Pak Secretariat, private offices and residential area of Gulshan-e-Jinnah in sector F-5/I are facing problems.