ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Barrister Ali Zafar has said that by invoking Article 245 of the Constitution to extend stay of the armed forces for another 90 days in Islamabad — the venue of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) plan­ned lockdown — the federal government has shown that it has already panicked.

In a statement issued on Thursday, he said that the government had the legal right to call in the armed forces, but the power should be exercised with utmost caution and as a last resort that too when police and civil authorities failed to control riots and life and public property were at stake. Such a situation has not yet arisen.

Under the law, he said, the government could take such an action as a pre-emptive step if it had credible and clear information that the protest would be violent. If this is the case then before issuing such a notification, the government should have disclosed the information to public.

No such information had been disclosed till date and as such the government notification was based on an anticipated presumption, Mr Zafar said.

“Thus this is a premature and prima facie unconstitutional action by the government,” he said, adding that the armed forces could not and should not be used to control protests — a job which should be handled by police and civil authorities.

Barrister Zafar said that to him protests did not pose any danger to democracy but were part of it. Moreover, presently the armed forces are seriously concerned about national security.

The government, political parties and people must do much more, both domestically and in international relations, to support them (the military) without hesitation in the fight against terrorism and any covert or overt external aggression, the SCBA chief said.

“This is the time when the National Security Council should be set up and made operational by law,” he said and urged the government to rebuild confidence so that it could handle matters rel­a­ting to the country’s security.

About PTI demonstrations, Barrister Zafar said the protest against corruption was the constitutional right of a political party and the legal fraternity had always raised its voice against corruption.

But, he added, while exercising the right to protest, the PTI — as a mature party — must ensure that the right of Islamabad people to freely continue their daily life was not infringed.

Referring to the Islam­abad High Court’s decision against the PTI sit-in, the lawyers’ leader said that it was not the duty or obligation of courts to control law and order, rather the government and the administration were responsible for it.

Involvement of the courts in such matters would lead to difficulties if people chose to defy court orders or the government misused its authority in an enthusiastic reliance on court orders, he added.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2016