LAHORE: A Lahore High Court full bench on Friday reserved its verdict on petitions of PTI leaders challenging the constitution of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to investigate the cases of violence and attack on police teams outside the Zaman Park residence of former prime minister Imran Khan.

During the concluding arguments, an additional advocate general said the courts are supposed to describe what the law is and should avoid saying what the law would be.

Reiterating his stance on the procedure to form a JIT, he said the provincial government did not nominate names of the representatives from the agencies working under the domain of the federal government but only asked the latter to appoint its nominee for a team.

He said a prior approval of the federal government would complicate the procedure.

An additional secretary for home said the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) adopted the same procedure for the constitution of the JITs in the past. He said the procedure had been in practice since 1997. However, he said there was still room for improvement in the rules.

Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh, the head of the bench, observed that the petitioners had grievances against some of the members of the JIT.

A counsel for the petitioners also argued that the police included the offence of terrorism in the cases beyond the facts.

The law officer said the police teams were attacked with petrol bombs and stones. He said there was information of armed workers inside and outside the Zaman Park house of the PTI chief.

The petitioners’ counsel said the whole world witnessed what the police did outside Zaman Park.

The judge said all saw what happened there. He observed that the court would like to know the reasons behind the constitution of the JIT and the rules exercised by the government.

The bench reserved its verdict as both sides concluded their arguments.

Justice Farooq Haider and Justice Muhammad Amjad Rafiq are the other members of the bench.

The petitions were filed by Dr Yasmin Rashid, Musarrat Jamshed Cheema and Fawad Chaudhry.

The petitioners submitted that the police registered politically motivated cases against the PTI leaders and constituted an illegal JIT for the investigation. They said the police unlawfully inserted provisions of the anti-terrorism law in the cases.

They asked the court to set aside the notification of the formation of the JIT and also the call-up notices issued to them and other leaders of the PTI.

The home department had formed a six-member JIT with SSP Imran Kishwar its convener. Other members include SP Aftab Phularwan and one each representative from three intelligence agencies.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2023