During the hearing of Islamabad sit-in by religious parties, Justice Shaukat Aziz asked why government is not doing any thing for eviction.
"Due to the sit-in, 8 lakh people of Rawalpindi-Islamabad are suffering on daily bases but government is not taking care of it," Justice Aziz remarked.
The Deputy Attorney General requested court to conduct hearing in private as 'some issues cannot be discussed openly.' Upon this the court remarked that people have right to know about important issues and reasons behind this sit-in.
Furthermore, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal reached the court after being called by judge.
"Why court orders have not been acted upon," the minister was asked by the court. Iqbal told court that there was danger of bloodshed if force was used.
"We have called meeting of Ulema of Pakistan today and we will reach to a consent today. We just need a bit more time," he told the court.
The court gave two more days to government to end the sit-in. "You will responsible if sit-in continues," the court remarked.
The court was adjourned till November 23.
While talking to media outside IHC , interior minister said that government is hopeful for a breakthrough during today's meeting with religious scholars and parties.
"Some entities want this sit-in to lead to incidents like Lal Masjid and Model Town," interior minister reiterated.
Hundreds of supporters of the PakistanTehreek-e-Labaik Ya-Rasool-ullah party have blocked the road to Islamabad for nearly 13 days, demanding that the minister of law be sacked for what they term blasphemy.
A court had already ordered the party to end the protest, the order added. “After this final announcement, you all are being warned to end the illegal sit in immediately.”
Tehreek-e-Labaik blames the minister, Zahid Hamid , for changes to an electoral oath that it says amounts to blasphemy. The government puts the issue down to a clerical error.
Pakistan’s blasphemy law has become a lightning rod for Islamists, especially since 2011 when the liberal governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was murdered by a bodyguard for questioning the law that mandates the death penalty for insulting Islam or the Prophet Mohammad.A spokesman for the Labaik party, Ejaz Ashrafi, refused to comply with the order.“We’re not moving,” he told Reuters by phone form the sit-in.
A government official, Khalid Abbasi, said the protesters had set up pickets along the route they are occupying manned by party members carrying iron rods and sticks.
Since they got the warning, he said, hundreds of more party workers have joined the sit-in.
Fearing violence, the government has blocked several roads with shipping containers to corral the protesters, but that has caused hours-long traffic jams in and around the capital.
In 2007, a confrontation between authorities and supporters of radical preachers at an Islamabad mosque led to the death of more than 100 people.
“All resources can be used to break this sit-in,” the deputy commissioner’s warning said.
