LAHORE: The Lahore High Court was asked on Friday to declare unconstitutional creation of private force by Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and also restrain the party from holding its “Azadi March” apparently aimed at removal of the government.

“No private organisation is allowed functioning as a military organisation as it is an offence under the Private Military Organisations (Abolition and Prohibition) Act, 1974 punishable with imprisonment of a term which may extend to five years,” said a petition filed by a citizen namely Irfan Ali through Advocate Nadeem Sarwar.

The petitioner contended that the creation of private army weakened the country’s stance on war against terrorism. He said the private force namely “Salar Force” presented the guard of honour to the JUI-F chief and pledged to sacrifice their lives.

Petitioner also wants JUI-F’s private force declared unconstitutional

He argued that in the presence of state institutions, creation of private army was a clear violation of the Constitution.

The petitioner submitted that Maulana Fazl was using innocent children of seminaries for political motives against the government. The respondent party had also been spreading hatred against a democratically elected government through his provocative speeches, which may cause chaos in the country, the petitioner said, adding that the act was sedition under section 124-A of the PPC.

He further pleaded that the dharna (sit-in) announced by the respondent was also a violation of fundamental rights (including right to representation, right to life and right to free movement) of the citizens.

The petitioner asked court to declare that creation of a private army was unconstitutional and direct the federal government to take stern action against the respondent party and its chief. He further prayed to court to enforce right to political justice and restrain the respondent from holding march and sit-in in Islamabad as being unconstitutional, undemocratic and bar him from using students of the seminaries.

He also sought a direction for the government to initiate process for legislation to regulate sit-in and protests.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2019