What this has to do with Punjab Govt.?
FARID
http://www.dawn.com/2007/05/28/top1.htm
Punjab backs Sindh govt, bars Imran from leaving Lahore
By Amjad Mahmood
LAHORE, May 27: After the government of Sindh barred Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf chief Imran Khan from entering the province for one month, its counterpart in Punjab barred the cricketer-turned politician on Sunday from leaving Lahore for three days and stopped him from boarding a Karachi-bound plane.
Leaders and activists of the PTI took to the streets in Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta and several cities and towns in interior Sindh in protest against the orders of the Sindh and Punjab governments. They blamed the Muttahida Qaumi Movement for the government’s action against their leader and threatened to launch a countrywide protest campaign.
Imran Khan was due to visit Karachi and Hyderabad on Sunday. In Hyderabad he was to attend a conference of opposition parties convened by the Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party.
In a telephonic address to the conference from Lahore, Imran Khan lashed out at the MQM and its coalition allies for the action and said the orders issued by the Punjab and Sindh governments would not deter him from his campaign against MQM chief Altaf Hussain who, he alleged, was responsible for the May 12 bloodbath in Karachi. He announced that he would go to London on June 9 and file a case against Altaf Hussain for, in his words, ordering the killings in Karachi.
Also on Sunday, women activists of the MQM holding banners and posters took out a large procession against Imran Khan in Karachi. They called upon ulema and leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal to issue fatwa against what they called Imran’s ‘immoral and sinful’ activities.
Punjab home department’s order was served on Imran Khan at around 8am when he was to leave his Zaman Park residence for the airport to take PIA’s flight to Karachi.
Police personnel deployed outside his house told him to stay back as the home department had prohibited him from leaving the city for three days.
The PTI chief received the orders under protest, but accompanied by party activists, left for the airport only to be told by the authorities there that under orders from the government they could not issue the boarding card. “You cannot travel to any part of the country as there are orders restricting you to stay in the city for three days,” airport security officials told him.
Having no other option, Mr Khan went back to his residence.
Talking to reporters at the airport, he said the ban was a violation of his civil rights and his party would challenge it in the Supreme Court. “Isn’t Karachi a part of Pakistan? And being a Pakistani can’t I go anywhere in the country?”
He alleged that the government was hatching a conspiracy to divide the country on linguistic lines by handing over control of a certain part of the land to one party.
Questioning the logic behind the orders, he said the ‘enlightened’ and ‘moderate’ government should be asked if it could come out even with a single case of law-breaking, extortion and politics of dead bodies against him or his party during 11 years of their political life.
“We’ve always been a peaceful party and never indulged in any unlawful activity.” He said the restriction orders had been issued at the behest of Altaf Hussain who, he alleged, considered himself the ‘Pharaoh of Karachi’ and took the port city as his personal property.
He regretted that slogans against him in indecent language had been written on walls in Karachi by the MQM. He also criticised President Musharraf for patronising the MQM, and said: “Mr Musharraf should know that neither he nor the MQM could save his ship from sinking.
“The world has seen his real face and the masses would never forgive him for playing with the future of the nation by creating the worst political, judicial and social crises in the country.”
He said if the government had fears that something might go wrong in Karachi (due to his visit) then it should “ban the MQM activists and not him” (from holding meetings there).
Activists of the PTI held protest meetings at several places in the provincial metropolis to protest the ban on their party chief.
MMA activists also joined them at some places. The main protest was held outside the Lahore Press Club where an effigy of Altaf Hussain was burnt.
