Never use expired teargas: Govt tells LHC

Court warns it could initiate contempt proceedings if it transpired authorities ever used expired teargas

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has disposed of a plea seeking a ban on the use of expired teargas after the federal government assured the court that the riot police do not use expired teargas shells to disperse protesters.

However, the LHC warned the government that the court might initiate contempt proceedings against it if it later transpired that the authorities ever used expired teargas canisters on protestors.

LHC's Justice Shahid Karim on Wednesday took up a plea, requesting the court to impose a ban on the use of expired teargas, which, the petitioner said, was poisonous and adversely affected the health of the people exposed to it.

The petitioner claimed authorities have been using expired teargas canisters, which have caused death and eye and lung diseases in people including women and children who are exposed to them.

The petition said the federal government on November 4 used expired teargas shells to disperse protestors in Islamabad.

The gas, however, also affected people of the nearby localities. It claimed that the use of teargas shells has been completely banned under the Geneva Convention and as a signatory to the convention, Pakistan is bound to stop using teargas.

In its reply, the federal government "dispelled the impression" that expired teargas shells were ever used to disperse protesters. Deputy Attorney General Asad Ali Bajwa opposed the petitioner counsel’s arguments claiming that no expired teargas shells had ever been used.

The petitioner’s counsel, however, rejected the report submitted by the federal government and argued that the report had nothing to do with reality.