LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday struck down the offence of sedition under Section 124-A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) for being repugnant to the fundamental rights.

The court allowed a few public interest petitions challenging the colonial era law used to curb dissenting voices. The petitioner Haroon Farooq pointed out that it was one of the many draconian laws brought into force to suppress any voices of dissent.

He submitted that the law of sedition as contained in section 124-A PPC was a residue and relic of oppressive colonial legacy which had been introduced to rule the subjects.

He, therefore, said the provisions of the impugned section were repugnant to the constitutional guarantees including freedom of speech, movement, assembly, association and of expression provided under Articles 15, 16, 17 and 19 of the Constitution. He further argued that the word “government” as exists in the section 124-A PPC was surely and squarely defeated the freedoms which were created by the Constitution.

He prayed the court to declare the impugned section void and ultra vires being inconsistent with and in derogation of fundamental rights.

A part of chapter VI of “Offences against the State” in the PPC of 1860, the section 124-A reads as “whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the federal or provincial government established by law shall be punished with imprisonment for life to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine.”

The impugned law of sedition was originally drafted in 1837 by Thomas Macaulay, the British historian-politician, but was omitted when the Indian Penal Code was enacted in 1860. Thereafter, in 1870, the same was inserted in Indian Penal Code, 1860 through Penal Code (Amendment) Act, 1870 by James Stephen when the colonial masters felt the need to perpetuate their imperial rule.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023