Overview
- District officials stopped on-site work at Minar-e-Pakistan on Friday and ordered preparations suspended because the Pakistan Peoples Party had not produced written permission for its July 25–26 events.
- Punjab Police and the Parks and Horticulture Authority submitted reports advising against a permit on grounds of security and the venue’s role as a public recreational park, and officers stopped trucks carrying sound gear, chairs and generators at the park entrance.
- PPP leaders say they began work after the Punjab chief minister’s principal secretary gave a verbal OK, but the Chief Minister’s Office declined to confirm that approval when contacted by reporters.
- The party had mobilized large numbers of workers and erected a 100-by-24-foot stage and other elaborate arrangements for President Asif Ali Zardari’s birthday and a workers’ convention that would include a large cake and a Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari address by video link.
- The dispute risks setting a precedent for how the district handles other party requests, notably a pending PTI rally, and has sharpened partisan tensions in Punjab as PPP accuses provincial authorities of blocking the event and has appealed to national figures for intervention.