Cheema, Nekokara case: PTI files application to become party

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) submitted on Monday an application in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for becoming a party in a petition filed earlier by four retired police officers seeking reinstatement of two top cops removed during the protests outside Parliament last year.

Islamabad IGP Aftab Cheema was suspended and former SSP Mohammad Ali Nekokara was dismissed from service for failure to use force against the protesters during last year’s sit-ins by PTI and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT).

Former IGPs Iftikhar Rashid, Afzal Shigri, Tariq Pervez and Shaukat Javed, through their counsel Babar Sattar, have challenged the government’s order.

They have described the disciplinary actions against the two officials as “illegal”.

The application, filed by the PTI through its information secretary Dr Shireen Mazari, says the action and non-actions of the police officers during the PTI sit-in and long march cannot be adjudged without the presence of the party in the petition.

Without the applicant being the party in this case, stated the application, the role of the respondents – IGP Cheema and SSP Nekokara – cannot be fairly determined and justice cannot be properly adjudicated in the petition.

It may amount to miscarriage of justice if the applicant is not made a party in the case, the application reads.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2015.