ISLAMABAD: PTI lawmaker Shandana Gulzar on Thursday approached the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), seeking the immediate release of Sohail Afridi, the non-functional chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the provincial assembly speaker and other party workers.
In the petition, Ms Gulzar, a member of the National Assembly, sought FCC directives for the production of Mr Afridi, Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, PTI-KP President Junaid Akbar and other party workers before the court.
The federal secretaries of interior and defence, the KP chief secretary, secretary of the KP Home and Tribal Affairs Department, inspector general of police KP, capital city police officer Peshawar, deputy commissioner Peshawar and director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)werenamed asrespondents.
The petition requested the FCC to direct the respondents to ‘immediately disclose before the court their whereabouts, the identity of the authority exercising custody, the legal instrument and statutory provisions invoked, as well as the grounds of detention and the date and circumstances of their taking into custody’.
It urged the court to order the production of the PTI’s provincial leadership in person so that their present condition, liberty and legal status could be ascertained and the ‘legality of any such restraint upontheirlibertybeexaminedjudicially’.
Ms Gulzar also sought a declaration from the FCC that Articles 232, 234 and 245 of the Constitution did not confer any authority to arrest, detain, confine or conceal the whereabouts of any person in disregard of the Constitution and applicable laws.
‘Such exercise of state power remains subject to constitutional safeguards and judicial review,’ the petition argued.
It further urged the FCC to declare that the exercise of executive authority under any constitutional arrangement pursuant to Article 234, or in the contextof the deployment of armed forces under Article 245, could not lawfully be used to circumvent the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 4, 9, 10, 14, 17, 19 and 19-A of the Constitution.
The petition also sought directions for providing the detained party leaders access to legal representation and their family members, as well as necessary medical examinations and treatment and protection against ‘torture, coercion, intimidation or any form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment’.
‘The FCC should declare that any actionundertakenbythe respondents,if found to be motivated by political considerations or intended to frustrate the exercise of constitutional and democratic rights, would amount to an abuse of public authority or a violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution,’ the petition stated.
Ms Gulzar also requested the FCC to order the immediate release of the detained PTI leaders, subject to any lawful order passed by a competent court in accordance with the Constitution and the law.
PTI chairman moves FCC Separately, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan also approached the FCC on Thursday, seeking his impleadment in the case concerning the restraint imposed on the PHC from hearing petitions relating to the detention of PTI activists.
Through a miscellaneous application, he stated that he was a petitioner before the PHC in a case challenging the imposition of governor’s rule and the proclamation of emergency in KP.
The application requested the FCC to allow his impleadment as an intervenor in the pending matter so that he could advance his arguments, present his point of view and, if necessary, submit a written statement.
The application also sought modification of the FCC’s Nov 5 order to the extent thatproceedingsbefore thehighcourton petitions challenging governor’s rule and the proclamation of a state of emergency in KP should not remain suspended.