Faizabad dharna: Govt forms new fact-finding commission

The Supreme Court (SC) was informed on Wednesday that the government has constituted a new fact-finding commission to probe the 2017 sit-in by Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) at Faizabad.

A three-member bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Aminuddin Khan resumed the court proceedings hearing a set of review petitions against its verdict on the 2017 sit-in.

Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Usman Mansoor Awan informed the bench today that a new fact-finding commission has been constituted under the Pakistan Commissions of Inquiry Act, 2017.

On Tuesday, the SC bench in its order said,“ “We expect the commission which is proposed to be constituted will consider why the same and other review petitions/ applications were filed and if it was coincidental, or was done pursuant to being instructed from the same source.”

AGP Awan in the last hearing had informed that a three-member committee comprising the Additional Secretary-I, Ministry of Defence, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Interior and Director, Inter-Services Intelligence has been constituted to conduct an inquiry with regard to the matters mentioned in the (Faizabad dharna) judgment.

Faizabad dharna

In November 2017, political parties including TLP Ya Rasool Allah held a sit-in for nearly three weeks at Islamabad’s Faizabad Interchange.

They were protesting against a reversed change in the Khatm-i-Nabuwwat oath in the Elections Act 2017. The protesters demanded the resignation of then Federal Law Minister Zahid Hamid.

Supreme Court says it wants to know name of ‘mastermind’ behind Faizabad sit-in

In order to disperse the huge number of protesters, Islamabad police, with the help of Frontier Corps personnel and Rangers, launched an operation and used tear gas shells and rubber bullets. In retaliation, protesters threw stones at the security forces. Several people were injured and at least six were killed during the clash.

The protest came to an end after the protesting parties and government reached an agreement. One of the agreement included the resignation of Hamid, which he later tendered.

The verdict

Justice Isa, in his 2019 Faizabad dharna judgment, had written that the Constitution emphatically prohibited members of the armed forces from engaging in any kind of political activity, which included supporting a political party, faction or individual.

“The government of Pakistan through the Ministry of Defence and the respective chiefs of the army, the navy and the air force are directed to initiate action against the personnel under their command who are found to have violated their oath,” read the 43-page verdict authored by the incumbent CJP Isa.

He stated that no one, including any government, department or intelligence agency, could curtail the fundamental right of freedom of speech, expression and press beyond the parameters mentioned in Article 19 of the Constitution.

“Pakistan is governed by the Constitution … obedience to the Constitution and the law is the inviolable obligation of every citizen wherever he may be and of every other person for the time being in Pakistan,” he wrote in the verdict.