PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Thursday issued notices to the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments seeking their response to a petition requesting to stop the provincial government and other individuals from using state resources for any future protests.
A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal issued the order after preliminary hearing of the petition filed by a citizen of Peshawar, Momin Tariq, seeking orders of the high court to restrain protesters from blocking any public or private place, building or any vehicle on GT (Grand Trunk) Road, Motorway route, cities or any other area in protests.
The petitioner has made multiple prayers in his petition also requesting the court to order organisers not to use money or hire protesters and also not to make their ‘anti-federation’ and ‘anti-state’ narration through public and social disturbance in individual or collective capacity.
He also sought directives of the court for the federal government to issue an ordinance or enact a law for prohibiting ‘anti-state’ march towards another province or the federal capital, Islamabad.
The petition has also sought interim relief requesting the court to restrain protesters, with or without consent of the provincial government or any elected member of the provincial or National Assembly, from violating any provision of the Constitution.
The respondents in the petition are: Federal government through attorney general for Pakistan, National Assembly and Senate through their respective secretaries, federal interior secretary, KP government through advocate general, KP chief secretary and Election Commission of Pakistan through its secretary.
Advocate Mohammad Hamdan appeared for the petitioner and stated that his client had observed serious violations of laws and the Constitution by the ‘so-called’ protester from this province during the last few years.
He stated that the provincial government, through their political mandate misused the resources, machineries and assets of this province against the stability of the country.
He questioned whether the Constitution permitted any protester or member of a political party to create disturbance between governments in the name of protests.
The counsel stated that the protesters were in fact state offenders who used racial propaganda against the unity of the federation of Pakistan.
He claimed that throughout the territorial jurisdiction of this high court the political mandate had been misused, which was a threat to the harmony in between the provinces and the federation.
He cited several constitutional provisions, arguing that fundamental rights of citizens guaranteed therein had been violated by the protesters. He added that the right to free movement of a citizen had been affected due to blockade of roads, including the GT Road and Motorway, etc.
Published in Dawn, Aug 1st, 2025
