Missing record: SHC issues notice over theft of the Constitution draft

Petitioner claims document missing since long


Our Correspondent September 19, 2014

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court issued on Tuesday a notice to the federal and provincial law officers to respond on the petition calling for probe into the alleged theft of the original document of the 1973 Constitution.

Almost a year ago, the petitioner, Agha Attaullah Shah, chairman of a non-governmental organization, Raah-e-Rast Trust, had approached the court requesting it to order interior ministry and IG Islamabad to register a case against the theft and probe into the matter.

In the petition, Shah claimed that reports published by different news websites were true and the original manuscript, which bore the signatures of all the then constituent assembly members and president, was indeed missing. He cited parliamentary sources indicating that the document, which he terms “the most important and authentic document”, has been missing from the archives of Parliament since long.

The petitioner also pointed out that before approval of the 18th Amendment, the then speaker of the National Assembly, Fehmida Mirza, had requested to see the original document of the Constitution, but she was informed that the document was missing from the assembly’s records.

On September 3, 2013, the judges had asked the petitioner to prove the maintainability of his plea for the lodging of a case on the alleged theft.

During a subsequent hearing held on Thursday, the SHC bench, headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, issued a notice to the deputy attorney general and the advocate general Sindh to file their comments in this regard. Hearing was adjourned to a date to be later notified by the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19th, 2014.

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