MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court on Thursday observed thatit was the bounden duty of the state to protect the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights of its citizens, stressing that no one could be barred from holding a peaceful protest for their legitimate demands.

A divisional bench, comprising Senior Judge Justice Syed Shahid Bahar and Justice Sardar Mohammad Ejaz Khan, made this observation while hearing two writ petitions clubbed together, challenging the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee`s call for a lockdown on September 29 to press for acceptance of its charter of demands.

The court was moved through the two separate petitions seeking to declare the lockdown announcement `unconstitutional and illegal.

The first was filed on September 9 by three persons through advocates Sardar Bilal Shakil andJunaid Ali Arif, while the second was lodged later by another three persons through Advocate Jamal Zafar. Both petitions maintained that shutdowns amounted to `blackmailing tactics` and threatened law and order.

Thejudgesunderscoredthatfundamental rights formed the basic structure of the Constitution, making them an unalterable feature.

`Right No. 1, i.e. security of a person, is the mother of all fundamental rights, covering all facets of life. Thus, protection of the lives of state subjects is a bounden duty of the state,` remarked Justice Bahar, adding that these rights were a `bulwark` between the state and its citizens.

Reiterating that the state could not suppress any protest through force, the bench observed: `The Constitution is a contract between the government and the people.

The state has the status of a mother and runs on the blood and sweat of its taxpayers. The state cannot suppress anyprotestthroughforce,nor will the court allow it.

The court asked Advocate Shakil,counsel for the earlier petitioners, why the action committee had not been made a party to the petition and, in that event, to whom notices should be issued.

It noted that while the judiciary must intervene where there was a threat to fundamental rights, public protest itself remained a constitutional right.

Turning to the maintainability of the petitions, the bench questioned Additional Advocate General Raja Saeed. `If these writ petitions are maintainable, it means the government has failed in providing basic rights to the people. And if they are not, it means the government is discharging its duties and the petitions will be dismissed.

The bench regretted the AJK government`s indifference, remarking that it took the intervention of the federal government to open negotiations with the committee, underscoring the gravity of the situation.

For further proceedings, the court summoned Advocate General Sheikh Masood Iqbal to appear in person at 9am on Friday (today).