Rabbani for withdrawal of sedition case against students

ISLAMABAD: Former Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani on Monday accused the government of a dual policy and asked for withdrawal of sedition case against students, ‘who had raised voice for their fundamental right of forming student union’.

In a statement issued here, Senator Rabbani termed the registration of an FIR against 300 students as unfortunate, condemned it and demanded its withdrawal. He pointed out that students were demanding their fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 17 of the Constitution 1973 for lifting of the ban on student unions.

“The duality of policy of the government is evident from the fact that it withdrew the notification of the prosecution team in the high treason case against general Musharraf and then went on to file a petition in the Islamabad High Court, praying that the special court be restrained from announcing its order on November 28, 2019,” he pointed out. Rabbani contended that this was a matter in which the constitutional dispensation in the country had been disrupted through constitutional means.

The Committee of the Whole of the Senate of Pakistan, he recalled, in August, 2017, after hearing stakeholders passed a consensus resolution calling on the government to the extent of the Federal Capital Territory and the provincial governments to lift the ban on student unions and regulate the same in order to ensure zero tolerance for violent activities.