SC questions non-implementation of Faizabad sit-in verdict

ISLAMABAD: A three-member bench on Thursday took up the review petitions against its judgement in the 2017 Faizabad sit-in case.

The dharna was staged by  Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) against the then federal government of the PML-N.

The verdict against the sit-in staged by the religious outfit was authored by the now chief justice of Pakistan, Justice Qazi Faez,  back in 2019.

The review petitions were filed by the then ruling PTI, AML, interior ministry, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) etc.

The IB two two days back had said it was going to withdraw its cade while PEMRA moved the apex court gor taking back its petition on Wednesday while the federal government also took back in its plea today.

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.

During the hearing, the representative of the federal government said the government was not pursuing the petition.

On this, the chief justice remarked that earlier the government had claimed that the verdict had discrepancies, but now it was withdrawing its petition.

He also asked the federal government why the verdict had not been implemented. He said had the verdict been implemented the country would not have seen many other similar incidents.

The court also sought a report on it.

In November 2017, TLP staged a sit-in at Faizabad, Islamabad, for over three weeks against an alleged change to the oath of government functionaries.

The sit-in was called off after an agreement signed with the federal government under which among other concessions the then federal law minister Zahid Hamid resigned from his post.

Besides inconvenience to the public, the public exchequer faced losses worth millions of rupees as the protesters damaged public property.

The Supreme Court took suo motu notice and a two-member bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Qazi Faez Isa heard the case and reserved its verdict on Nov 22 that year.

The judgement directed all the intelligence agencies to not exceed their respective mandates.

“They cannot curtail the freedom of speech and expression and do not have the authority to interfere with broadcasts and publications, in the management of broadcasters/publishers and in the distribution of newspapers.”