PTI moves Supreme Court for judicial commission

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf on Monday simultaneously moved Supreme Court’s principal seat in the federal capital and four registries in as many cities for the constitution of a judicial commission to probe several “important matters,” including an attempt on Imran Khan’s life.

The petitions were filed in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, and Quetta. The PTI parliamentarians filed the petitions under Article 184(3) of the Constitution. They prayed the apex court to proceed with the assassination plot and attempt on ex-prime minister Imran Khan and the subsequent refusal to register the FIR as requested by the complainant to include three names identified by Imran Khan as having devised the assassination plot and an illegal video recording of Senator Azam Swati and his wife made while they were staying at an official rest house and sent to the Senator’s wife.

“This is an infringement of the inviolable dignity of man guaranteed under Article 14 of the Constitution of Pakistan as well as a gross violation of the law in terms of wiretaps and clandestine camera placements to make covert videos,” the PTI parliamentarians contended.

They submitted that the public in general and parliamentarians, in particular, are feeling that there is no respect for privacy or the dignity of a citizen. Therefore, it constitutes a matter of public importance concerning the enforcement of the fundamental rights of the citizens of Pakistan.

The PTI parliamentarians contended that the assassination attempt was also intended to create psychological fear among the public, which has thronged the PTI’s long march led by Chairman Imran Khan.

They submitted that all this hinders the public at large from the peaceful assembly, undermining the citizens’ fundamental right to freedom of assembly guaranteed under Article 16 of the Constitution.

“Following the assassination attempt, another grave injustice continues to fester because the police have refused to register the FIR according to the request submitted by the complainant,” they contended.

They submitted that the police have refused to do so because they have stated they will not enter the names of the three persons identified by Imran Khan, who has said they planned the assassination---- Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and DG C Maj-Gen Faisal.

They contended that the refusal to file the FIR raised some fundamental questions about the law of the land and its particular applicability, which, along with being an infringement of inalienable rights protected under Article 4, is also an infringement of the fundamental right to equal treatment of citizens as guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution.

“Surely, it is an inalienable right of every citizen to enjoy the protection of the law and to be treated by the law as guaranteed under Article 4 of the Constitution,” they submitted, adding that, as per Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (1898), an officer in charge of a police station is under the legal obligation to enter the information received in an application-in-writing in a book as a First Information Report.

The PTI senators, MNAs, and MPAs also prayed to the apex court that the Judicial Commission should also probe the assassination of journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya.

They submitted that an independent commission should investigate what circumstances compelled Arshad Sharif to flee the country and eventually end up in Kenya, and why the assassination is perceived as a threat to freedom of speech by the journalist community. As a result, along with an infringement of the fundamental right to security of a person (right to life) guaranteed under Article 9, it also impedes freedom of expression.

“Since the freedom of speech of the journalist community has a close nexus with the general public’s right of access to information guaranteed under Article 19-A of the Constitution, such an attempt to curb the freedom of speech by the brutal killing of a journalist becomes a matter of public importance,” they submitted.

“Since the above events affect the fundamental rights of the public at large guaranteed under Articles 4, 9, 16, and 25 of the Constitution, these are fundamental questions of critical public importance concerning the enforcement of fundamental rights of the citizens of Pakistan and therefore suffice to invoke the original jurisdiction of the Court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution,” they maintained.