ISLAMABAD, May 14: The Supreme Court on Monday observed that it wanted to know whether the 2007 military operation to quell the activities at Lal Masjid was launched after a formal request by the civil authorities or not.
A three-judge Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain hearing a number of cases relating to the Lal Masjid incident explained that the court wanted to know about the facts so that it could move ahead systematically.
The court wanted to learn whether a written request was received for launching the military operation since the armed forces could only come in aid of the civil administration after invoking the constitutional provision.
Advocate Tariq Asad, one of the petitioners, explained that the armed forces could only come to assist the civil administration under Article 245 of the Constitution but alleged that merely verbal instructions were given during the operation.
However, on Monday, the court could not make much progress on the issue due to lack of proper assistance by the government’s counsel who was not at all well conversant with the matter.
The bench was inquiring from the police authorities as well as the deputy attorney general (DAG) to inform it about the record of registered complaints prior to the launch of the operation.
“The court cannot shut its eyes and would hear both sides to reach a conclusion,” the CJP observed saying they would not decide the matter rather might send it to another forum for decision.
In response to court’s queries, the DAG Babar Ali requested the bench to grant some time enabling him to go through the entire police record and was directed to come prepared on the cases relating to the Lal Masjid on May 24.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Tahir Alam apprised the court that they had received complaints against the students of the Jamia Hafsa allegedly attacking and threatening the inhabitants of the locality.
He also read out an FIR of July 2, 2007 alleging that a group of over hundred students attacked the police personnel and Rangers deputed around the mosque in which a Lance Naik of Rangers was also killed.
Advocate Iftikhar Gilani, representing Wafaqul Madaris, apprised the bench that they had nothing to do with the land the Capital Development Authority (CDA) had given to the Jamia Hafsa rather they wanted compensation for the bereaved families and registration of criminal cases against those responsible for killing innocent students.
Iftikhar Gilani questioned a police report over the number of deaths of mosque students which claimed that only 103 were killed. He also objected to a statement of the report which claimed that only three of them were innocent while all others were criminals.