LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Thursday told the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) that it could not hold a rally this Sunday and asked the party to allow citizens to live their routine lives.

The party was planning to hold a “historic” public rally at Lahore’s Minar-e-Pakistan on March 19 and PTI Chairman Imran Khan was set to lead it — despite “security threats”.

PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry had moved the high court a day earlier seeking to stop the operation for arresting Khan in the Toshakhana case.

The court had ordered police to suspend the operation till 10am today — which helped calm the situation at the former prime minister’s residence which had turned into a battleground.

But today, the court noted that neither the LHC nor the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has stopped the law enforcers from executing the deposed prime minister’s arrest warrants.

PTI workers and police clashed for nearly 24 hours, with the law enforcers trying to get through supporters and arrest Khan, who was voted out as the prime minister last April.

Scores of people — including police personnel and PTI workers — were injured in the process as the law enforcers fired teargas and party supporters resorted to throwing Molotov cocktails.

Legal proceedings against Khan began after he was ousted from office in a parliamentary vote early last year. Since then, he has held nationwide protest rallies demanding a snap election, during one of which he was shot and wounded.

This is a developing story and will be updated when more details are available. Please refresh the story for latest updates.