The Supreme Court (SC) expressed on Monday its dissatisfaction with the report submitted by an inquiry commission formed to investigate the 2017 Faizabad sit-in.
A three-member bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Awan took up the hearing today.
Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan appeared before the court and was inquired whether he read the commission’s report.
When the AGP replied in the negative, the chief justice directed him to review the report. Once Awan reviewed the report, the CJP expressed his anger and questioned what kind of report the commission had made and inquired where the rest of its members were.
The Attorney General’s office on Sunday submitted the Faizabad dharna inquiry commission report to the apex court.
The 150- page inquiry report deals with the circumstances involving Faizabad sit-in, reports said.
The media reports, that remained unconfirmed, suggested that the inquiry report did not fix responsibility on any individual or institution for Faizabad sit-in debacle.
Faizabad ‘dharna’
In November 2017, political parties including Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan protested and 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.
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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.
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