ISLAMABAD, Oct 5: Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has been requested to invoke Article 190 of the Constitution calling upon the Army to restore permanent peace in Karachi.

A group of eminent intellectuals and scholars including former chairman joint chief of staff committee Admiral (retired) Iftikhar Ahmed Sarohi and nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan on Wednesday submitted an application in this regard to Registrar of the Supreme Court.

The signatories alleged that both the central and provincial administrations had miserably failed to establish the writ of the government and proposed a number of solutions through a formula to tackle the gravest problems the country was facing.

The application or what the movers termed a constitutional formula referred to different provisions of the 1973 Constitution that could be invoked by the apex court to extricate the state and the nation from highly catastrophic and perilous conditions obtaining in the country.

The authors of the formula also include former chairman Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) Dr S M Zaman, Vice Chancellor RIPAH International University Dr Anis Ahmed, President Sir Syed Memorial Society Brig (retired) Iqbal Shafi, Editor In-Chief Balochistan Times Syed Fasih Iqbal, Prof Dr Muhammad Moiz Uddin Syed, Mansoor Aqil and Sana Ullah Akhtar.

The formula proposed constitutional measures to get rid of the NRO beneficiaries (obvious reference to President Asif Ali Zardari) as well as those who had failed to fulfill the requirements of the membership of the Parliament and provincial assemblies.

There is a specific reference in the formula to the latest law and order situation in Balochistan where the executive authorities have failed to protect the fundamental rights of the citizens.

The formula submitted to the Supreme Court also accused the government of total failure in protecting the sovereignty of the country in the context of US-led drone attacks from across the border which is the blatant violation of Article 97 of the Constitution.