PHOTO: INP
IHC Justice Athar Minallah has issued notices to the inspector general of police and the chief commissioner, directing them to nominate an authorised officer who should appear before the court on November 3 (today) to explain the situation.
The directions came in connection with the detention and arrest of PTI activists ahead of the party’s planned protest on November 2.
PTI MNA from Islamabad Asad Umar petitioned the court to challenge the imposition of Section 144 and the ban on using loudspeakers in the federal capital, while simultaneously requesting the court to remove police officials stationed outside the residence of Imran Khan.
Umar, through his counsel Farrukh Dall, “stressed that the respondents, in the garb of Section 144, illegally detained peaceful and law-abiding citizens.” The counsel argued that the grievance of the petitioner is to the extent that Section 144 is being used by the respondents to deny fundamental rights guaranteed under articles 14, 15, 16, 17 and 19 of the Constitution.
The petitioner has made the federation through the Ministry of Interior, the Islamabad IG, and the Islamabad chief commissioner and deputy commissioner respondents in the case.
Dall said that hundreds of workers, members and affiliates of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf were in police custody following the notifications. He claimed fake FIRs were registered against them under Section 188 (disobeying a public servant), and other provisions of the law.
He asked the court to declare the notifications illegal and pass an order to quash all FIRs registered against the workers.
The court will take up the case today.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 3rd, 2016.
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