PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday directed the interior secretary to file response to a petition filed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and two other ministers against the use of force by the personnel of Punjab and Islamabad police against a PTI rally bound for Islamabad on Oct 31 to join a sit-in against the alleged corruption of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family.

Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ikramullah Khan also included the provincial chief secretary and provincial police officer as respondents in the petition and directed advocate general Abdul Lateef Yousafzai to file their comments within 14 days.

The bench fixed Feb 15 for the next hearing into the petition.

The petition is jointly filed by the CM, health minister Shahram Khan and education minister Atif Khan seeking the high court’s ruling to declare the actions of the respondents, including PM Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, against the PTI rally against the people’s free movement as enshrined in the Constitution.

CM, ministers challenge use of force by police against Oct 31 rally bound for Islamabad

They have prayed the court to declare that use of force against rally participants (or them) a violation of their fundamental rights. The petitioners also sought orders declaring the police action ‘arbitrary, of no legal effect and wholly without jurisdiction’.

The respondents in the petition are PM Nawaz Sharif, Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif, the federation of Pakistan through interior secretary, Punjab police chief Mushtaq Sukhera, Attock DCO Rana Akbar Hayat, Attock DPO Zahid Nawaz Marwat and NHA Peshawar director.

Babar Awan, lawyer for the petitioners, said the action of Punjab police amounted to trespassing as they had entered areas in this province and had used brutal force against peaceful participants of the rally.

The bench asked whether the petition was maintainable and it was the jurisdiction of the high court to look into the events, which apparently took place in the other province.

Babar Awan said the personnel of Punjab Police had entered this province and had carried out tear gas shelling and baton charge near Swabi Interchange on Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway and therefore, the bench should issue notices to the IGPs of Punjab and Islamabad.

The bench observed that at first, the issue of the jurisdiction would be decided for which a reply would be sought from the federal government after which notices would be issued to other respondents.

The petitioners claimed they had announced participation in the peaceful public meeting in the federal capital along with cabinet of KP and peaceful citizens of the province but the federal government issued a statement on Oct 29 unlawfully banning them from moving around freely in Islamabad besides saying the chief minister won’t be allowed to keep official security there.

They said on Oct 31, the CM along with the Speaker of the provincial assembly and provincial cabinet addressed a peaceful public rally in Swabi.

“After addressing the rally at Swabi the chief minister along with cabinet members and MPAs and people from all walks of life were on their way to Islamabad, when first at Aurangabad and then at Burhan Interchange the Punjab police on the orders of the federal and Punjab governments resorted to indiscriminate baton-charge and teargas shelling without any lawful cause and authority,” the petition said.

Published in Dawn January 25th, 2017