ISLAMABAD: As the Supreme Court resumes hearing of the Panama Papers cases in the first week of November, a lawyer who had earlier sought an order restraining Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan from his plan to paralyse Islamabad through protest, moved another application on Saturday for the early hearing of his petition.
Petitioner Tariq Asad requested the court to fix the hearing of his petition against the PTI’s sit-in on Tuesday or any other convenient date within a week from Oct 24 in the interest of the people and protection of their fundamental rights.
Otherwise, he contended, the petition would become infructuous.
A three-judge Supreme Court bench, consisting of Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, will take up five petitions on the Panama Papers issue on Nov 1.
In the fresh application, Mr Asad recalled that the court had fixed Nov 1 as the date for hearing of his petition seeking a high-level judicial commission to investigate the investment made by the prime minister’s family and others allegedly through offshore companies.
The counsel said that during the last hearing of the case, the court had asked him to file an application for early hearing of his second plea.
He said that if his second application was not heard and disposed of prior to Nov 2, Islamabad would be closed, leaving residents to suffer as they would be deprived of their right to life and liberty as interpreted by the Supreme Court in the 1994 Shehla Zia case, in which it had expanded the fundamental rights to life and dignity by interpreting them to encompass the right to a healthy environment.
“Schools, colleges and universities will be closed, attendance in private and public offices will become thin, businessmen will suffer, patients will be deprived of medical treatment, the aggrieved people will be denied of their right to get their grievances redressed in courts etc,” the petition said.
“The official work of the federal and provincial governments will also be affected, creating political instability and an economic crisis, thus causing a loss of billions of rupees,” it said.
The residents of Islamabad are worried and wondering about their fault, it said and wondered whether the people were not entitled to enjoying their fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
“Are the chief justice and other judges of the Supreme Court not obliged by virtue of their code of conduct and oath to protect, preserve and defend the Constitution?” the petition asked.
The counsel argued that the PTI chief had ordered his party’s workers and supporters throughout the country to make arrangements for food, beds and blankets to prolong their stay in Islamabad for an indefinite period, until Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigned.
He said the PTI had also threatened law-enforcement agencies of unspecified consequences if they tried to interfere in the sit-in.
The petitioner recalled that the previous sit-in of Mr Khan had lasted 126 days and said it had infringed upon various fundamental rights of the people.
Published in Dawn October 23rd, 2016
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