LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday dismissed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) petition for stopping the possible tear gas shelling on the party rally in Rawalpindi. However, the court asked the government to file its reply in this regard. The petitioner told the court the federal government has provided 50,000 tear gas shells to the security force for the PTI November 26 rally, which is serious threat to people’s lives; therefore; the forces should be stopped from possible use of teargas shelling on the party protesters.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Interior on Wednesday again requested the PTI leadership to postpone its public gatherings in view of threats to the life of PTI Chief Imran Khan and prevailing security situation in the country.

A letter, addressed to PTI Secretary General Asad Umar, states that the interior ministry has been sharing threat alerts generated by credible intelligence sources to the life of Imran Khan by anti-state elements to destabilize the country. The letter also mentioned recent attack on Imran Khan by an armed assailant at Amirabad.

The letter said that the federal government has already provided a bullet proof vehicle and deployed police and civil armed forces during his stay in the Islamabad Capital Territory. However, presently, Imran Khan is stationed in Lahore and participants of the long march have travelled to Rawat, which is very close to Rawalpindi.

It is expected that the Punjab Government would be taking all measures for security arrangements not only for the PTI Chief but also for participants of the march as anti-state elements like Al-Qaeda, Daesh, TTP and radicalized youth of TLP can take advantage of soft targets like public gatherings to destabilize the country through suicide attacks and improvised explosive devices.