ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC), Friday, sought the details of cases registered against Fawad Chaudhary and other leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) over the Masjid-e-Nabwi incident.
A single bench of Chief Justice Athar Minallah on Friday heard former speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser, PTI leader Fawad, and others’ petition, wherein, they asserted that due to ‘political victimisation’ multiple criminal cases have been registered at the behest of the Federal Government merely to harass and intimidate them and other leaders/ workers of the PTI.
The IHC bench directed the Interior Ministry to provide the details of the cases registered against the PTI leaders and deferred the hearing for two weeks.
Faisal Chaudhary, representing the PTI leaders, said that an open-ended First Information Report (FIR) was filed, that identified those nominated in it as “PTI leadership”.
Responding to the PTI leaders’ counsel, the chief justice asked how cases are registered on political grounds at every police station and urged the parliament and federal government to play its role in bringing this practice to a halt. He added that every government does this during its tenure.
The court directed to the Interior Ministry to submit the record of all the cases registered against the petitioners at police stations across the country in two weeks. The IHC chief justice added that no MNA can be prevented from attending assembly sessions even if they are in jail.
Commenting on the recently amended National Assembly rules, the chief justice stressed that no parliamentarian can be arrested without the approval of the NA speaker. At this, juncture, Justice Minallah also mentioned the case of incarcerated MNA Ali Wazir.
He remarked that Ali Wazir’s case should be resolved as well, as no voices have been raised for him, despite his constituency being unrepresented and this is unacceptable. He questioned if Wazir could attend the parliamentary sessions following the recently amended rules. To this, the PTI leaders’ counsel responded in the affirmative.
However, commenting on the amended NA rules, Faisal added that under the rules a parliamentarian under arrest would be permitted to attend the assembly session.
The IHC CJ welcomed the change and observed that this would ensure that no constituency remains unrepresented during the parliamentary sessions. He added that issuing a production order was no longer just a choice for the Speaker NA. He also expressed the hope that these rules would be implemented in its true spirit.
Previously, the IHC chief justice had emphasized in its written order that religion should not be dragged into politics and use of religion for politics is also disrespect of religion. Justice Minallah observed that it was the responsibility of the state to create an environment of patience and stability in the country. He added that if there is no patience, things like these (registering cases) will happen and it is wrong.
The judge observed that apparently, it seems that the cases registered in Pakistan were not justified. He maintained that religious sentiments were important but the state had a responsibility. He remarked that the government has not learnt anything from the Sialkot-like incident where a Sri Lankan national was lynched over blasphemy allegations.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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