Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday briefed members of the diplomatic corps on the recent clashes between PTI protesters and the authorities in Islamabad, reaffirming the government’s commitment to ensure the security of Islamabad’s Red Zone.
Several lives were lost in the three days of PTI-led protests in Islamabad, which included a policeman and three Rangers officials who were knocked down by a speeding vehicle, officials and hospital sources said. The PTI claimed that 12 of its supporters were killed during the protest.
The clashes ended following a hasty retreat of the party’s top leadership and supporters from the Red Zone in the early hours of November 26. The late-night retreat by the PTI leadership, including Bushra Bibi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, came after the latter was heard telling the protesters “to go home, have dinner and return tomorrow”.
“Our priority has always been to take care of the Red Zone, which has the Parliament, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, key federal institutions but most importantly, the diplomatic corps,” Dar said while speaking to the members of the diplomatic corps on Wednesday.
“We make sure that … the Red Zone is free from any protests or violence.”
The deputy prime minister said that to achieve this goal, the government had enacted the ‘Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act, 2024’. This barred demonstrations in the Red Zone and mandated permission from a magistrate for any public gatherings.
Dar informed the diplomats that PTI had chosen to hold a protest on November 24, which coincided with the planned visit of the Belarusian president.
“It is surprising that a political party chooses to protest on a date when some foreign dignitaries are visiting Pakistan,” he said.
“A couple of months ago, on October 14, the Chinese Prime Minister was coming for a bilateral visit,” Dar continued. “On the 15th and 16th, we had the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) multilateral summit. The Heads of Government meeting was scheduled in Pakistan ages ago and they chose October 14 for the same purpose.”
Deeming the coinciding of PTI protests with foreign visits “mala fide”, the minister brought attention to the PTI’s 2014 sit-in at D Chowk, which led to the postponement of the Chinese president’s visit.
“You are very dear to us and your security is very dear to us,” Dar said, addressing diplomats. “We enacted a law … that bars protest in the Red Zone. If you want to do any peaceful protest, there is a procedure. You have to apply to a district magistrate, get permission and hold your ‘peaceful rally’.”
“However, they have a history of not being peaceful,” Dar added.
The deputy prime minister said that the Islamabad High Court had barred the PTI from holding any protest gathering in the Red Zone. “The business community of this area went to the court … and the court, on the writ petition … stated that they (the PTI) could not hold the rally and that the government should engage with them.”
Following the court ruling, the government tasked Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to engage with the PTI but the efforts remained unsuccessful. “They were insistent, law or no law, we will come to the Red Zone,” he said.
Dar emphasised that freedom and human rights should not be exercised in ways that could endanger the lives and property of both Pakistanis and the diplomatic corps.
The deputy prime minister highlighted that the government had shown restraint, as law enforcement agencies were “only equipped with water cannons and tear gas, not live ammunition”.
According to Dar, the police and Rangers were deployed in two tiers, with the army as a third line of defence to protect the Diplomatic Enclave, Parliament House, the Prime Minister’s House and other important buildings.
Dar also questioned the legality of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government using public resources to stage a march on the federal capital, asserting that they did not have the right to do so.
In a post on Imran Khan’s official X account — which he does not personally have access to — issued the content of his talk with journalists on Tuesday, where he demanded the Supreme Court form an impartial judicial commission to investigate the “massacre of innocent and peaceful citizens.”
“I have demanded from the Supreme Court to form an impartial judicial commission to investigate the massacre of innocent and peaceful citizens and to give severe punishment to those who ordered the massacre and those involved in it,” he was quoted as saying.
Khan said the PTI would not stay quiet on the matter and would continue to raise its voice on the issue.
“The data of hospitals in Islamabad and Rawalpindi regarding the martyrs and injured should be made public as soon as possible and CCTV footage of all hospitals and Safe City should be preserved so that evidence cannot be lost like on May 9,” he said.
