ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has asked Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri to appear before it to reply to a number of challenges filed against the sit-ins being staged on Constitution Avenue by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT).

“We would like to give notices to all the respondents for tomorrow (Thursday),” observed Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, who heads a five-judge larger bench that has taken up a number of petitions moved by various bar associations across the country. The latest one has been filed by the Multan High Court Bar Association and names both Mr Khan and Dr Qadri as respondents.

Both leaders are expected to appear before the bench; in person or through their lawyers.

On Wednesday, PAT protesters remained encamped on the median and green belt around the Supreme Court building, blocking the entry and exit gates meant for judges. In the morning, nearly all judges, including the chief justice, had to take a long detour to enter the building and a few had to walk to the Judge’s Block from the rear of the building.

The difficulties faced by Islamabad residents were also mentioned by the chief justice during the hearing when he observed that a number of cases had to be adjourned since neither the contesting parties nor their clients could reach the court. Even court staff, the chief justice said, arrived late.

Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja said that nearly a dozen cases out of a total of 15 that were on his bench’s cause list for Wednesday had to be adjourned because the counsel were unable to make it to court.

Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Kamran Murtaza told the court that the protesters were breaching the rights of the common citizen as enshrined in articles 15 and 16, which ensured freedom of movement and right of assembly, respectively.

Justice Saqib Nisar observed that the rights of citizens were a social contract and the right of one was the duty of the other. The court, he said, was not bothered about the political thicket at its doorstep, but rather the impediment to the fundamental right of free movement.

During the proceedings, Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt piped up, saying that in the 2012 ‘memogate’ case, former chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had ruled that the Supreme Court could intervene when the people’s fundamental rights were threatened.

The chief justice, however, promptly cut the AG short, saying that there were limits to that.

Justice Khawaja observed that the government had to function and could only be removed through certain means, given in the Constitution, otherwise anarchy would prevail.

The AG cited the definition of ‘public order’ as given by the Supreme Court in the Khan Wali Khan case of 1976 and the Benazir Bhutto case of 1988, but deplored that both the PTI and PAT were demanding the removal of a legitimately-elected government – both at the centre as well as in the provinces – except the one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“They have staged a self-proclaimed parliament outside Constitution Avenue and are adopting resolutions against the current political system,” the AG said, highlighting the 1997 judgment by the Kerala High Court of India, where it was held that a threat to the life and property of citizens defied the concept of a strike.

The apex court is currently hearing petitions filed by the SCBA, Lahore High Court Bar Association, Islamabad High Court Bar Association, Sindh High Court Bar Association and Multan High Court Bar Association.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2014