The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday summoned Deputy Commissioner (DC) Islamabad on a plea seeking to declare the proclamation of Section 144 in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) illegal and void. A single member bench of IHC comprising Justice Athar Minallah resumed hearing of a plea filed by PTI leaders, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Asad Umar Jahangir Tareen and others.
Federation of Pakistan, IG Punjab, IG Islamabad, IG Azad Kashmir and the Chief Commissioner Islamabad were made respondents in the petition. During the course of hearing, Farrukh Dall counsel for PTI apprised the bench that in the night between August 30 and 31, several participants of PTI Dharna were arrested by the Islamabad, Punjab and AJ&K police. Instead of releasing these workers, Deputy Commissioner Islamabad imposed section 144 in ICT. He prayed the court to declare the imposition of Section 144 as illegal and all actions taken under it, without lawful authority. Farrukh also requested the court to bar the respondents from illegal detaining the participants of Dharna.