ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has been informed that the federal government has firmed a fact-finding committee to determine who were the backers of those who staged a sit-in at the junction of Islamabad and Rawalpindi and paralyzed life in the two cities for over three weeks.
The government through the attorney general for Pakistan submitted a report to the apex court in reply to the court’s query about the implementation of the Supreme Court ruling in the Faizabad sit-in case passed about four years ago.
The report said that the fact-finding committee had already held its maiden meeting recently and discussed it’s terms of reference.
The committee would record statements of witnesses and probe all other evidence to fix responsibility.
The committee would also find out who were the planners of the dharna and who were providing logistical and other support to the participants numbering in thousands.
It may be mentioned here that the apex court in its ruling had stated that intelligence and army officials had allegedly managed the protest against the democratic government of the time.
The dharna was staged by Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) against the then federal government of the PML-N in November 2017.
The verdict on a suo motu case against the sit-in was authored by the now chief justice of Pakistan, Justice Qazi Faez, back in 2019.
However, the court directions to take action against those involved in arranging the dharna were never implemented and a number of parties and the government filed review petitions against it
The review petitions against the ruling were filed by the then ruling PTI, AML, interior ministry, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) etc.
A three-member bench led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Athar Minallah took up the review petitions early this month.
The court is expected to resume the hearing of the matter on October 28.
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