Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A petition filed in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday requested the court to order the government to publicise the Defence Ministry’s report to reveal about the people who used army chief’s name in the agreement reached between the state and Faizabad protesters.

The report was submitted in the court in February after the Defence Ministry secretary was directed to fix responsibility on the person(s) responsible. The petitioner, Advocate Rana Abdul Qayyum filed the application through his counsel Inamul Rahiem. The petitioner said he was entitled to the copy of the report being a party to the case as well as the report “being a public document”. Advocate Qayyum highlighted the oath for the members of the armed forces at the time of joining which states that the “officials will not engage in any political activity whatsoever and violation would attract provisions of high treason.” He further said the petition is a sequel to the earlier petition wherein he invoked the court’s jurisdiction for initiating and adopting legal process against the planners, abettors, conspirators, executioners, facilitators and their agents involved in the unconstitutional acts beyond their mandate as envisaged and provided in the constitution.

The contents of instant report as well as the report of the committee headed by Senator Raja Zafarul Haq following the controversy on the Khatm-e-Nabuwwat clause in the Elections Act, 2017, have yet to be made public. The IHC will take up the application on March 13.

In December last year, IHC had expressed hope that the government would identify persons who caused embarrassment to the military by using the name of the army chief in the agreement reached.

Hundreds of Tehreek-e-Labbaik supporters called off a sit-in protest, which crippled the federal capital for more than two weeks, after former law minister Zahid Hamid resigned. The protesters had blamed Hamid for a hastily-abandoned change in the oath of elected representatives.

Published in Daily Times, March 13^th 2018.