ISLAMABAD: Opposition leaders in the National Assembly and Senate have approached the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), seeking the release of non-functional Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and other Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders.
A two-member FCC bench, headed by Chief Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan and comprising Justice Aamir Farooq, will resume hearing on Monday (November 16) of appeals filed by the KP Additional Chief Secretary and the Secretary of the Home and Tribal Affairs Department against the Peshawar High Court (PHC) orders.
At the last hearing, the FCC bench suspended the PHC orders issued under Article 199 of the Constitution on or after October 12, 2026, in terms of clause (4) of Article 245.
READ ALSO: Sohail Afridi’s brother approaches high court over ‘abduction’ of non-functional KP CM
Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Opposition Leader in the Senate Raja Nasir Abbas jointly filed a petition before the FCC on Saturday.
PTI MNA Shandana Gulzar also filed a petition before the FCC on Thursday, seeking the release of KP Chief Minister Afridi, the provincial assembly speaker and other party workers. Meanwhile, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan filed an application seeking to be impleaded in the case.
The two opposition leaders have made the federal secretaries of interior and defence, the KP chief secretary, the secretary of the Home and Tribal Affairs Department, the provincial inspector general of police, the Peshawar capital city police officer, the Peshawar deputy commissioner and the director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) respondents in the petition.
The petition seeks enforcement of fundamental rights and constitutional protections against the alleged unlawful arrest, detention and confinement of Afridi, KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, Fazal Shakoor Khan, Dr Amjad Ali, Sultan Room, Yameen Khan, Abdus Salam Afridi, Muhammad Azam Khan and Ikram Ghazi, as well as six National Assembly members — Junaid Akbar Khan, Dr Amjad Ali Khan, Iqbal Khan Afridi, Fazal Mohammad Khan, Zubair Wazir and Maulana Naseem Ali Shah.
It also seeks disclosure of their places of detention, their production before the FCC, a declaration that their custody is unlawful and without lawful authority, and appropriate constitutional relief in the interest of justice and the rule of law.
The petition raises substantial questions of public importance concerning the supremacy of the Constitution, the sanctity of the democratic mandate, constitutional limits on executive authority under Articles 232, 234 and 245, and the protection of fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 4, 9, 10, 14, 17 and 19-A of the Constitution.
It raises the question of whether the constitutional mandate conferred upon members of the National Assembly and provincial assemblies through the electoral process carries enforceable constitutional protection against arbitrary state action designed to obstruct, frustrate or undermine their participation in representative governance.
It questions the selective or collective targeting of elected representatives on account of their political affiliation, parliamentary position or participation in opposition politics, contending that such actions constitute discriminatory treatment, political victimisation and an abuse of public authority, contrary to Articles 4, 14, 17 and 25 of the Constitution.
The petition also asks the FCC to declare that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and that no proclamation of emergency, assumption of provincial executive authority, deployment of the armed forces or other extraordinary governmental measure can confer unfettered powers upon any state authority to disregard fundamental rights, constitutional safeguards or the democratic mandate of the people.
It further requests the court to declare that the “liberty, dignity, political association and representative functions of elected members are constitutionally protected, and that any arrest, detention, confinement, restriction of movement or coercive action against them is unlawful, unconstitutional and without legal effect”.
“Moreover, the electoral mandate of the affected elected representatives cannot be defeated, neutralised or rendered ineffective through arbitrary executive action, political victimisation or the misuse of state machinery.
“The people of KP are constitutionally entitled to effective representation through their duly elected representatives.”
The petition also seeks an order directing the production before the court of all members in custody. It further maintains that Articles 232, 234 and 245 of the Constitution must be exercised strictly within their respective constitutional parameters and cannot be invoked to justify the suppression of political dissent, the disabling of elected representatives, interference with parliamentary functions or circumvention of the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
The petition argues that the exercise of executive and administrative authority under governor’s rule does not suspend the state’s constitutional obligations, displace the supremacy of fundamental rights or place the actions of public functionaries beyond the scrutiny of the FCC.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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