Karachi: Police in the city want mobile phone services to be shut off as part of the security plan for a landmark rally to be held by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairman of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), on Saturday.
Sources said authorities have put forward the recommendation to the government.
Under the revised security plan, police more than doubled the number of officers to be deployed around the rally’s venue. Earlier, around 10,000 policemen were assigned to guard the rally but this has been increased to 22,500.
Authorities were also arranging for 100 walk-through gates to be installed at entry points of the rally, to be held at Jinnah Bagh, opposite the mausoleum of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of the nation.
The provincial government also announced a public holiday on Saturday.
Leaders of the PPP visited the venue to oversee security measures and other arrangements for the rally, which was being accorded high importance among party cadres amid the ongoing political expeditions by other parties.
The PPP rally was planned after the successive rallies of Imran Khan in different cities of the country. The rally, to be held on October 18, also marks the death anniversary of the more than 160 people who died in the twin bomb blasts that took place the day Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan to end her years of self exile.
The opposition leader in the national assembly, Khurshid Shah, who visited Jinnah Bagh, talking to media said that the security measures were being taken but “Allah will accord His protection to us.”
He added that the rally was not aimed to oppose or favour someone but it was planned to pay homage to the martyrs of October 18, 2007.
Meanwhile, a PPP office in Mawach Goth, an area infested with criminals and gangsters, was ransacked. The PPP shrugged off the incident saying it was an insignificant quarrel at the party office.
Party supporters were arriving in the city from all over the country to participate in the rally. The leadership say that the rally would be a landmark in Pakistani politics and the largest one in the history of the country.
