PTI files contempt plea in SC against govt action during May 25 march

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) member of the National Assembly (MNA) Khurram Nawaz and party member Malik Fakhar Ali on Tuesday filed a contempt plea in the Supreme Court against government authorities for violating the court’s orders on May 25, 2022, which prohibited raids and arrests of PTI personnel.

The petition listed Ministry of Interior Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar, Inspector General of Police Islamabad Akbar Nasir Khan and Senior Superintendent of Islamabad Police (operation) Malik Jamil Zafar as respondents.

The petition filed in the SC maintained that the respondents “installed and placed thousands of containers at different places of Islamabad and created obstacles for free movement of citizens of Pakistan, blocked many areas and avenues”.

Read SHC turns down PTI's plea

It added that they were “taking coercive measures against the party members/workers/common citizens of Pakistan, extending threat openly through all sources of media, airing paid advertisements on media, on one hand, and have prepared a list of party workers/members/activist Police Station wise and now have started arresting them and raiding their houses without any offence”.

It maintained that the act of the respondents is “illegal, unlawful, without lawful authority, unwarranted, null and void”.

It further said that on Monday, “the respondent Police and contingents of Frontier Constabulary work under the administrative control of the respondents, raided the houses of the petitioners without any offence and warrant but fortunately they were not present at their house at the time of raid”.

“This raid is [a] blatant example of police atrocities, misuse of authority and abuse of process of law,” the petition stated.

According to the petition, the government authorities had committed contempt of the apex court’s orders by not complying with their earlier orders.

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“The respondents have frustrated and abused the process of law by ignoring [and] disobeying the direction/commitment by not fulfilling the direction for the assuring and protecting the fundamental rights of the individual as protected and safeguarded under fundamental rights of [the] chapter of the Constitution”.

Pleading that a contempt case is initiated against the respondents, the petitioners stated that “the respondent does not have respect for this Honourable Court and did not take into account orders” and would keep violating orders unless contempt proceedings were initiated.

SC orders of May 25

According to the apex court’s orders on May 25, the day of the PTI’s Haqeeqi Azadi march, the attorney general had assured the court that “houses, offices, and other private/residential places shall not be raided in an attempt to arrest any political worker/member sympathiser of [the] PTI”.

It furthered that “all workers/members and/or sympathisers and the leadership of any political party, including PTI, shall not be arrested till further orders unless any offence of a heinous nature is alleged to have been committed by him.”

The order also ordered supporters of any political party who were arrested two days before May 25 to be released “unless commission of any heinous offence has been alleged in any FIR lodged”.

The order had come after law enforcement authorities had raided PTI leaders’ houses and arrested party workers before and during the long march.