The Supreme Court resumed on Monday the hearing of review petitions filed against the court’s 2019 Faizabad sit-in judgement with the chief justice expressing his dissatisfaction with the report submitted by the inquiry commission.
A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Awan, resumed the hearing which was also broadcast on the Supreme Court’s YouTube channel.
Justice Isa, in his 2019 Faizabad Dharna judgment, had written that the Constitution emphatically prohibited members of the armed forces from engaging in any kind of political activity, which included supporting a political party, faction or individual. “The government of Pakistan through the ministry of defence and the respective chiefs of the army, the navy and the air force are directed to initiate action against the personnel under their command who are found to have violated their oath,” read the 43-page verdict authored by incumbent CJP Isa.
CJ Isa in his Faizabad Dharna judgment had held that no one, including any government, department or intelligence agency, could curtail the fundamental right of freedom of speech, expression and press beyond the parameters mentioned in Article 19 of the Constitution.
He ruled that those who resorted to such tactics under the mistaken belief that they served some higher goal deluded themselves.
“Pakistan is governed by the Constitution…Obedience to the Constitution and the law is the inviolable obligation of every citizen wherever he may be and of every other person for the time being in Pakistan,” he wrote in his verdict.
