Islamabad gunman: SC takes a dim view of standoff

Petition raises questions about the role of the administration, media and judiciary.

ISLAMABAD:

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Saturday took notice of Thursday’s dramatic standoff at Jinnah Avenue and its live coverage by private TV channels.

The court was responding to a petition filed by Advocate Tariq Asad.

The petitioner had raised questions about the role of administration, media and judiciary in the wake of the extreme action taken by an armed man, Sikandar, who drove with his family into a high security area in front of parliament on Thursday evening and kept the whole area hostage for more than five hours.

“I pray for the constitution of a judicial commission to probe into the matter and place responsibility on those who were responsible to prolong the occurrence, allow the public to watch the scene; and to take action against chief commissioner Islamabad for allowing the TV channels to telecast live transmission of such terrorism against their code of conduct,” the petitioner said.

The petitioner wrote that he was surprised to watch all television channels trying to take the lead over one another to exploit the situation.  “Although some of the journalists had difference of opinion against the live transmission, they were also constrained to participate therein,” he stated.

Advocate Asad also criticised Zamurd Khan’s intervention, contending that his attempt was against the principles and strategy of the operation in such circumstances. “Sikandar was not a normal person and as Dr Rizwan later told the media, the matter had been settled and Sikandar had agreed to be shifted to another place.”

He said the act of Zamurd could not be appreciated; “But people are making it a political issue to criticise the present government.”

Commenting on the chief justice’s statement in honour of Zamurd Khan, the petitioner said the comments were uncalled for. “It is not expected that the judges should give remarks on the acts and deeds of people. They should speak through their judgments. They should remain aloof from politics because such an issue may come before them for adjudication,” the petitioner said.

The court ordered to fix the petition before the apex court bench No. 1 on Monday, August 19.

Suo motu against oil firms

Meanwhile, the chief justice also took notice on an application against oil and gas companies in Sanghar dstrict. The petitioner, Advocate Abdul Hakeem, had said that oil companies, instead of providing infrastructure and gas facilities to the local people, were spreading environmental pollution in the area.  After going through the contents of the application the chief justice ordered to issue notices to the applicant, Oil and Gas Development Company managing director and attorney general of Pakistan to appear before the court on August 19.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18^th, 2013.