Lahore High Court to Hear Petitions Against PTI’s 2014 Sit-In After 10-Year Delay

The Lahore High Court has scheduled hearings for petitions filed against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) 2014 sit-in, nearly a decade after the protest. A three-member bench led by Chief Justice Aalia Neelum will hear the case on October 10.

The original petition was filed by the late lawyer A.K. Dogar, who had challenged the sit-in led by PTI’s Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek’s Tahir-ul-Qadri. The court’s registrar office has now issued the cause list.

In 2014, the petitioners, including A.K. Dogar, named multiple political parties, such as Awami Tehreek, Jamaat-e-Islami, and Pakistan People’s Party, as respondents. They argued that despite court orders, Imran Khan and Tahir-ul-Qadri defied the law by leading a march from Lahore to Islamabad and staging a prolonged sit-in, which amounted to contempt of court. The petition requested legal action against both leaders for this defiance.

The sit-in, which was organized by PTI and Awami Tehreek in protest against the PML-N government, saw thousands of protesters occupying Islamabad for several weeks, intensifying political tensions in the country.