Cabinet committee to address Faizabad sit-in
PHOTO: FILE
The federal government has formed a new cabinet committee to address the Faizabad sit-in case. This committee will evaluate whether a new commission should be established to investigate the 2017 protest by the TLP.
Expected to deliver its recommendations within two weeks, the committee will be chaired by Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar. Other members include Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Establishment Minister Ahad Cheema, Attorney-General for Pakistan Mansoor Awan, and Secretary of Law Raja Naeem Akbar.
On May 11, the Supreme Court raised serious questions about the impartiality of an inquiry commission that investigated the TLP’s November 2017 sit-in in Islamabad and exonerated former ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed in its report.
A three-member bench led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa is overseeing proceedings for the implementation of the court’s February 2019 order in the sit-in case.
Read Cabinet unhappy with Faizabad sit-in report
The court unveiled a written order from its May 6 proceedings on May 11, stating that the commission "went out of its way and mandate, to insist that a particular person [Hameed] had done no wrong by relying on his paper denial, while discounting the testimony on oath against him by another."
"In view of the SC’s February 6, 2019 order also authored by Justice Isa, the caretaker government had constituted an inquiry commission on November 15, 2023, and stipulated its terms of reference (ToRs)."
Led by Dr Syed Akhtar Ali Shah, a retired inspector general of police (IGP), the commission comprised Tahir Alam Khan, also a retired IGP, and Khushal Khan, a serving additional secretary of the interior ministry. The commission submitted its 1049-page report on March 6.
In its report, the commission exonerated spy agencies as well as former ISI chief Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed, putting the responsibility on political leadership, including then Punjab chief minister – now prime minister – Shehbaz Sharif, among others, for allowing TLP protestors to enter Islamabad without any resistance due to "apprehension of losing their vote bank."