We want to know who was mastermind of Faizabad Dharna: CJP

ISLAMABAD: During the hearing of the petitions against the Supreme Court verdict in Faizabad Dharna case, Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa asked the attorney general that the court wants to know who was the mastermind of the protest sit-in staged against the then elected government in November 2017. 

When the bench headed by the chief justice and comprising Justices Athar Minallah and Aminuddin Khan started the hearing, Attorney General Mansoor Usman appeared on behalf of the government. 

The chief justice referred to an affidavit filed by Absar Alam, who was the chairman of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) in 2017. In the affidavit, Alam stated on oath that PEMRA was under immense pressure from the army, especially then chief of the country’s elite spy agency.

The chief justice remarked that Alam in his affidavit has levelled serious allegations against a senior employee of the defence ministry. He asked the attorney general if he still wants to withdraw government petition filed against the court verdict.

The attorney general said the government has formed a fact-finding committee to fix responsibility. In reply to a question from the chief justice, the attorney general said that the committee was formed on October 19.

The court rejected the committee formed by the government and directed it constitute a commission to fix responsibility.

The judges raised questions on the legality of forming the committee and remarked that it was a tactic to save those behind the dharna from being punished. 

They said through the dharna, the whole machinery of the government was made paralyzed and damages to public infrastructure worth billions of rupees were caused but no action was taken against the responsible. 

If action is taken against the culprits and those who misused their authority, no one would dare to rake such illegal steps in the future, they added.

They regretted that the Supreme Court verdict was announced in 2019, but it could not be implemented even after four years and the government still wants to avoid action against the responsible persons.