On the sit-in report from Faizabad, CJP expresses dissatisfaction.
After a special committee that was established to look into the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) Faizabad sit-in sent its findings to the government, the Supreme Court began hearing the federal government’s review appeal in the Dharna case.
The bench was headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and included Justices Irfan Saadat Khan and Naeem Akhtar Awan.
What was new in the report, the chief judge inquired at the beginning of the hearing? The legislation the committee proposed are there; all that has to happen is implementation, he said.
“Many thanks for informing us about the implementation.” TLP was asked to record their remark, according to the CJP, because he was unable to see their input in the report.
The chief justice noted that it was unfair to hold Rana Sanaullah accountable because he was not a bureaucrat. “Looks like the commission was only interested in clearing Faiz Hameed.”
CJP Qazi observed that even the English terms used in the report’s drafting were incorrect, comparing the material in the report to that of the fifth grade.
“If the 2019 Faizabad case verdict had been put into practice, May 9 could have been avoided.”
What was contained in the report?
The 2017 Faizabad sit-in was investigated by a commission that concluded that the federal and Punjabi governments, which were then run by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), had failed.
The inquiry commission found that the Punjab administration at the time, headed by the current prime minister, Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, made no effort to put an end to the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) protests in the state.
The provincial authorities reportedly permitted the demonstrators to walk freely and gave the assembly security.
According to the report, threats against the lives of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, Rana Sanaullah, and other government officials made the Punjab administration reluctant to move against the demonstrators.
The provincial government led by Shehbaz Sharif in Punjab was relieved that the demonstrators had reached Islamabad because they wanted the centre to handle the issues surrounding the sit-in in Faizabad.
The sit-in at Faizabad
In opposition to the changes in the Election Bill 2017 that changed the word “oath” to “declaration,” Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) staged a sit-in at the Faizabad junction on November 8, 2017.
The demonstrators called for Zahid Hamid, the minister of law and justice, to step down in order to “preserve the nation’s identity.”
Zahid Hamid, the law minister, was forced to resign from the PML-N administration due to the protest. The Supreme Court received notice of the sit-in on November 21, 2017, suo motu.
A division bench headed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa subsequently revealed its decision in the sit-in case on February 6, 2019, criticising the intelligence agencies’ involvement in the narrative.
Justice Isa set a hearing date for the petitions challenging the Supreme Court’s February 2019 ruling shortly after taking office as Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) in September of this year.
On November 1, the bench ruled against the government’s fact-finding committee and directed it to establish a commission of inquiry to identify the sit-in’s mastermind.