Nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan on Monday approached the apex court against the order of the Lahore High Court. He filed his petition through Zubair Afzal Rana under Article 185(3) and made the federation through secretary interior and Strategic Planning Division (SPD) through Ministry of Defense respondents.
The Lahore High Court on 25-09-2019 had disposed of his writ petition due to lack of jurisdiction, advising him to approach Islamabad High Court for redressal of his grievance. He moved the top court against the LHC order.
He submitted that the LHC order was not in consonance with the law laid down by the apex court in the Khawaja Asif vs federation and the federation vs Pervez Musharraf cases that the fundamental rights including freedom of movement could not be abridged, curtailed or denied arbitrarily on mere liking or disliking and under the garb of 'reasonable restrictions.'
The petitioner said that a SPD contingent was housed in the premises next door to his house. It was only with their permission that his grandchildren could come to meet him. His lawyers were restrained from meeting him while his friends have to justify the cause of meeting.
Zubair Afzal stated that Dr Qadeer could not accept invitations from academic institutions. He could not address convocations and his invitations to various state functions was stopped.
He said the petitioner is 84-year-old and has undergone serious surgery for prostate cancer in 2006. Furthermore, the petition suffers from high blood pressure and depression, for which he has been hospitalized in the past.
These conditions have been aggravated due to the restraints put upon him by the government, which have been detrimental to his health and family. The petitioner fears these restraints will soon lead to his eventual demise.
The respondents are violating the constitutional safeguards, while restraining the petitioner from meeting his near and dears, servants, family members, friends, media persons, educators of colleges and universities for all lawful purposes and rights.
The petitioner is as good a patriot as anybody else. After the petitioner's retirement, the KRL Lab was managed by different scientists from time to time. None of them has been treated as a suspect like him nor has any of them been restrained. They all enjoy security of person of national status. However, in the garb of security, the petitioner is being denied his freedom.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019