A trader earlier filed petition claiming the NATO sit-in had affected business. PHOTO: PPI
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) in its short order on Tuesday declared the impugned action of members and supporters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and its allies with regards to the blockade and checking of freight trucks en route to Afghanistan as illegal, unconstitutional and unlawful.
A two-member division bench of Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Malik Manzoor accepted a petition filed by Haji Lal Muhammad, a trader, through his counsel Advocate Shah Nawaz Khan.
The advocate informed the court that PTI activists have blocked the Nato supply route to Afghanistan and had not taken businessmen with licences or how it would affect their business into consideration. He said the Afghanistan-bound track was also blocked and their vehicles were being checked, which was illegal.
He asked why PTI and its supporters have to check the Afghanistan Transit Trade vehicles as supply to foreign forces in Afghanistan had been blocked since the sit-in started. These checks, he claimed, had cost local businessmen millions.
According to the advocate, the provincial and federal governments were not fulfilling their prime responsibility, which was to provide these traders with protection so that their trade could continue.
Additional Advocate General Mian Arshad Jan told the court that the provincial government has registered some FIRs against workers of the parties who violated the law.
After hearing arguments from both advocates, the court accepted the petition and issued directions to the federal and provincial governments to provide security to life and property of citizens.
Haji Lal Muhammad filed the petition on December 17, 2013, stating that since November 24, PTI and its allied parties in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) staged a rally and vowed to block the supply to Nato through different routes.
There were reports of incidents between PTI supporters and transporters over checking documents and permits for trucks crossing into Afghanistan.
“Due to this unauthorized and unwarranted checking of documents and permits, traders and transporters have faced multiple problems and loss because of wastage of perishable items loaded in the trucks,” the petitions reads.
The petitioner says that the federation of Pakistan, K-P’s chief secretary, secretary of home and tribal affairs department and provincial police officer are duty bound to maintain rule of law, check and control violation of law, rules and address agonies of citizens, but in this case they had failed to perform their duty.
In his ground section, the petitioner says that he has the right to lawful trade, import and export for which he is paying tax and such rights have been guaranteed by the Constitution of Pakistan. The impugned act is affecting business and export continuously, causing financial loss to the petitioner and others.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 26th, 2014.
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