SC to hear plea today against crackdown on marchers

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has fixed the petition seeking its direction to remove the hurdles being erected by the government to PTI’s long march on Islamabad.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsen and comprising Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi, will take up the petition filed by the Islamabad High Court Bar Association Wednesday (today).

Bar President Shoaib Shaheen Tuesday filed a petition against raids on the houses of PTI leaders, blockades and hurdles to the long march. The petitioner submitted people were facing problems while commuting.

“The Constitution guarantees free movement of citizens and depriving them of free movement is a violation of their basic and fundamental rights.” The petitioner stated that police had started raiding houses and harassing political workers and legislators. He further prayed for issuing appropriate directions, restraining the state institutions from taking any illegal steps.

Meanwhile, SCBA President Ahsan Bhoon and Secretary Waseem Mumtaz Malik have stated that the right to protest and participate in any political activity is the fundamental right of every citizen of Pakistan and the government must not hinder the activities of any political party or stop anybody from exercising their fundamental right.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, they stated that the raids being conducted on the houses of political workers or citizens are totally unwarranted, against the law and the Constitution. Particularly, they condemned the raids on the houses of lawyers followed by their arrests.

They also noted with concern that senior lawyers like Babar Awan and Fawad Chaudhry had also been deprived of performing their professional obligations amid the ongoing turmoil. Therefore, they demanded the government refrain from indulging into such activities and taking steps that were against the law and Constitution.