ISLAMABAD(National Times)- PTI lawmaker Shandana Gulzar on Thursday approached the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), seeking the immediate release of Sohail Afridi, the non-functional Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, the provincial assembly speaker and other party workers.
Afridi has not been seen since the Centre imposed governor’s rule and emergency in KP on Oct 11. The very next day, a federal minister confirmed that he and some of his cabinet members were in preventive custody.
While the government has transferred powers to KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, the PTI has asserted that Afridi “remains and shall continue” to serve as the KP chief minister with the “confidence and support” of party founder and ex-premier Imran Khan.
In the petition filed with the FCC on Thursday, Gulzar — who is a member of the National Assembly — sought directives for producing Afridi, Swati, PTI KP President Junaid Akbar and other party workers before the court.
The federal secretaries of interior and defence, the KP chief secretary, the KP Home and Tribal Affairs Department secretary, the KP inspector general of police, the Peshawar capital city police officer, the Peshawar deputy commissioner and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director general were named as respondents.
The petition requested the FCC to order 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”.
The petition urged the court to order the production of the PTI’s provincial leadership in person so that their present condition, liberty and legal status be ascertained and the “legality of any such restraint upon their liberty be examined judicially”.
Gulzar also sought a declaration from the FCC that Articles 232, 234 and 245 of the Constitution do not confer any authority to arrest, detain, confine or conceal the whereabouts of any person in disregard of the Constitution and applicable law.
“Such exercise of state power remains subject to constitutional safeguards and judicial review,” the petition argued.
It pleaded before the FCC to order that the exercise of executive authority during any constitutional arrangement under Article 234 or in the context of deployment under Article 245 cannot lawfully be used to circumvent the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 4, 9, 10, 14, 17, 19 and 19-A of the Constitution.
It prayed that the FCC should order the provision of access to legal representation as well as family members to the detained party leaders, in addition to necessary medical examination and treatment as well as protection against “torture, coercion, intimidation or any form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”.
“The FCC should declare that any action undertaken by the respondents if found to be motivated by political considerations or intended to frustrate the exercise of constitutional and democratic rights will amount to abuse of public authority or violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution,” the petition said.
In her petition, Gulzar 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.
On Oct 13, Afridi’s brother, Muhammad Amir, had approached the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to trace his whereabouts, filing a petition seeking his recovery and an investigation into his alleged “illegal detention” and “abduction” from the Chief Minister House on Oct 11.
The petition claimed he was taken away by “unidentified armed and masked individuals in the presence of the capital city police officer”. The PHC on Nov 3 referred the plea, including those against the alleged abduction of Swati and Akbar, to the chief justice for the formation of a larger bench.
Meanwhile, the PHC on Oct 31 granted interim bail to scores of PTI activists detained under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance following the imposition of emergency.
However, the FCC on Nov 5 restrained the high court from hearing cases concerning the arrests of scores of PTI activists detained under the ordinance.
Subsequently, the PHC removed around 105 petitions from its Nov 10 cause lists, including those challenging the imposition of emergency and governor’s rule as well as the alleged illegal detention of Afridi, Swati, Akbar and scores of lawmakers.
PTI chairman moves FCC
Meanwhile, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan also approached the FCC on Thursday to seek his impleadment in the case pertaining to the PHC being restrained from hearing the cases regarding the detention of PTI activists.
Through the miscellaneous application, he stated that he was a petitioner before PHC in a case in which he had challenged the imposition of governor’s rule and proclamation of emergency.
The application requested FCC to order his impleadment so that he could become an intervenor in the pending matter and advance his arguments and present his point of view or submit written statement.
The petition has also pleaded before FCC to modify its Nov 5 order to the extent that the petitions challenging governor’s rule and state of emergency in KP before the high court should not remain suspended.
