QUETTA: A division bench of the Balochistan High Court (BHC) on Wed­nesday reserved its judgement on a challenge to the government’s move to dem­olish the historical building of the provincial legislature.

Supreme Court Bar Asso­ci­ation’s former president Senator Amanullah Kanrani had in a constitutional petition stated that the government’s decision was tantamount to damaging the historical national heritage.

He said the move to raze the historical building of Balochistan Assembly is a sheer violation of Article 28 of the Constitution.

Petitioner accuses govt of ignoring cabinet on the issue

He said Article 28 says, “Subject to Article 251, any section of citizens having a distinct language, script or culture shall have the right to preserve and promote the same and subject to law, establish institutions for that purpose”.

However, he deplored, the government was going against the Constitution. He contended that the government had planned to demolish the building and spend Rs5 billion on the construction of a new building without taking the cabinet into confidence.

The prejudiced move would be just a waste of public money, he claimed.

Referring to the House of Commons in the United Kingdom, the senator said that the building of Britain’s lower house was being preserved since it was a century-old building. The old building of the Sindh Assembly remained intact for the same reason, he argued.

Referring to Section 2 of Article 199, he said that it was the responsibility of the court to protect the basic right of citizens.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice Hashim Khan Kakar and Justice Moham­mad Aamir Nawaz, reserved the verdict, saying a detailed judgement would be made in line with the ground realities and facts of the case.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2024