Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa has said that there is a question of thousands of people's liberty and survival of the state that is fighting the terrorists, but for that the federal government has to show whether the actions (In Aid of Civil Power) Regulation 2011 is still a valid law.
If there is some vacuum on the internment centers that there was a review board or not to review the cases of inmates, then it could be looked at. The court noted that 25th Amendment did not protect the continuation of the internment centers.
A five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, heard the federation's and KPK's appeals against the Peshawar High Court verdict and the constitutional petition of the civil society against the Action in Aid (Civil Power) Ordinance, 2019.
The KPK government in January and April this year made laws for FATA & PATA, and on August 5 the governor promulgated ordinance which was almost a reproduction of two regulations promulgated by the President of Pakistan in 2011 for FATA and PATA through which legal cover was given to several detention centers set up during the military operations in different regions.
At the onset of the hearing, the attorney general said he wanted to show the video about the internment centers. The Chief Justice remarked: "We know that this country has gone through agony more than two decades," He asked the AGP that he should keep in mind that nothing should be legislated in violation of the Constitution.
The attorney general argued that after the 25th Amendment, Article 247 was deleted from the Constitution. He said the amendment was passed in last days of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. It was made in hurry. In order to restrict the terrorists, who are called non-state actors, the KPK government made laws, he said.
The areas of FATA and PATA were merged in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but the non-state actors, proscribed organization and the parties remained in the areas. They had not gone out from those areas.
Justice Gulzar Ahmed asked the attorney general, "You mean to say that as the terrorists and the proscribed organization remained in the areas, so were the internment centers." He said internment centers were established in 2008 and now it is 2019. There was a vacuum in the law after the 25th Amendment. "You want the Supreme Court to legislate. You should have gone to the Parliament."
The attorney general said: "I have drafted the law regarding the matter and it would take four to five months in its implementation in accordance with the Constitution."
The Chief Justice said, "It is not your function. Are you asking the apex court to allow the suspension of Constitution for four months?" He said in the 25th Amendment, internment centers and the army's stay in the province were not protected.
The attorney general informed that there were thousands of persons in the internment centers who have been released after their rehabilitation and they have integrated into the society. Now there are only one thousand persons detained in the centers. The court allowed the AGP to show the video about the centers today (Tuesday).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
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