KARACHI: PTI on Monday challenged within the Sindh Excessive Courtroom (SHC) the alleged detention of over 180 occasion staff throughout raids in Karachi and different elements of Sindh below the controversial Upkeep of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance.
On Sunday, the PTI alleged that the Sindh police carried out pre-dawn raids on the homes of its staff and leaders and picked up round 180 of them. The provincial authorities has denied the allegations of detention.
A two-member constitutional bench comprising Justice Muhammad Saleem Jessar and Justice Nisar Ahmed Bhanbhro took up the plea for listening to on Monday. Advocate Ali Tahir appeared because the petitioners’ counsel.
Nonetheless, Justice Bhanbro recused from listening to the case.
Subsequently, the bench ordered the registrar’s workplace to repair the listening to for Tuesday because the “counsel pleads urgency”, in keeping with a brief order obtainable with Daybreak.
The case will now be fastened earlier than one other two-member bench of the SHC.
The petitioners — PTI Sindh Common Secretary Mansoor Ali and Insaf Legal professionals Discussion board President Faisal Mughal — contended that the order issued below the MPO, dated February 1, was declared impugned and sought the fast launch of the occasion staff.
The petition — a replica of which is out there with Daybreak — named 14 respondents, together with the provincial chief secretary; the extra chief secretary; the inspector normal (IG); the Karachi extra IG; the deputy IGs of Karachi’s East, West and South zones; and the SSPs of Karachi’s East, West, South, Central, Malir, Korangi, and Keamari districts.
The petitioners requested the court docket to declare the MPO orders “unconstitutional, unlawful, with out lawful authority, void ab initio, coram non judice, and of no authorized impact”.
The occasion alleged within the petition that legislation enforcement businesses performed “tons of of unlawful raids, storming into personal properties with out warrants, typically at the hours of darkness, and abducting residents with out due course of”.
It additional alleged that in the course of the raids, police personnel[broke] down doorways, vandalized property, and looted private belongings” within the 180 “documented instances”.
The petition said that the orders got with out “any disclosed or lawful choice, approval, or satisfaction of the provincial cupboard”, which it mentioned stood in direct violation of Articles 4, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 19, and 25 of the Structure of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
The petitioners sought that the court docket declare the “impugned orders represent a mala fide, colourable, arbitrary and politically motivated train of energy, issued for an extraneous and collateral function, particularly the suppression of political opposition and peaceable democratic exercise, and never for the real upkeep of public order as contemplated by legislation”.
The petition additionally said that the PTI, as a registered and acknowledged political occasion, “is constitutionally entitled to arrange, take part in, and perform peaceable political exercise, together with conferences, protests, strikes, and political expression”.
It additional prayed that the court docket “put aside the impugned orders of their entirety and droop their operation forthwith”.
It added that the respondents needs to be restrained from taking “any motion in anyway pursuant to, in reliance upon, or in furtherance of the mentioned impugned orders”.
The petitioners additionally requested the court docket to direct the fast launch of “all individuals who’ve been arrested, detained, restrained, or in any other case disadvantaged of liberty pursuant to the impugned orders, if not required in some other case”.
It additional requested that “no recent detention, arrest, or coercive motion be taken towards them on the idea of the identical allegations, intelligence, or grounds”.
The petition prayed that the court docket declare the actions taken in relation to the orders “unlawful, unconstitutional, with out lawful authority, and violative of elementary rights.”
The petitioners alleged that actions taken towards the employees included “warrantless raids, house invasions, arrests, detentions, harassment, intimidation, and the detention of minors, girls, and aged residents”.
It additionally sought that the respondents ought to current earlier than the court docket the “full unique file, together with all summaries, intelligence studies, suggestions, approvals, notes, and decision-making paperwork allegedly relied upon for issuance of the impugned orders, together with any purported approval or consideration by the provincial Cupboard”.
The petitioners requested the court docket to provoke contempt of court docket proceedings towards the extra chief secretary (house) and declare that he “has acted in willful disobedience and defiance of binding judgments of this honorable court docket handed in earlier MPO issues, and that the repeated issuance of equivalent illegal orders quantities to ignore of judicial authority and prima facie contempt of court docket”.
They requested the court docket to make sure that no preventive detention order below the MPO Ordinance needs to be issued in Sindh with out “strict compliance with constitutional necessities, individualized satisfaction, and demonstrable approval of the provincial Cupboard”.
The petitioners requested the court docket to problem orders “restraining respondents from misusing” provisions below the MPO, notably, as a “substitute for peculiar felony legislation or as a software for political suppression”.
“Declare that the existence of any alleged various treatment below the MPO Ordinance doesn’t bar the constitutional jurisdiction of this honorable court docket in issues involving deprivation of liberty and mass illegal detention,” the petition learn.
It additional mentioned that the court docket ought to “grant any consequential, incidental, or ancillary reduction essential to completely restore and defend the elemental rights of the affected residents, together with safety towards re-arrest on the identical or related grounds”.
‘Repression, deception, and abuse of energy’
In the meantime, PTI Sindh President Haleem Adil Sheikh assailed the federal government for the “arrests”, stating that, “180 PTI office-bearers and staff have been arrested and despatched to jail below MPO-3 for one month, not for violence, however for saying a peaceable, voluntary strike on February 8.”
In a submit on X, Sheikh claimed that whereas the federal government ministers “publicly denied arrests and MPO orders until late night time, the detention orders have been quietly issued the identical night time, and detainees have been shifted to jail”.
“This isn’t governance; it’s repression, deception, and abuse of energy,” he added.
On Sunday, the Sindh authorities had categorically rejected PTI’s claims, calling them “fully false and deceptive”.
Senior Sindh Minister Sharjeel Memon, who additionally holds the portfolio of knowledge, mentioned no mass arrests or detentions below MPO had taken place.
He instructed Daybreak The PTI assertion was primarily based on incorrect info and geared toward creating pointless political hype.
“The place’s the checklist of these arrested? It is a blatant lie. The PTI is spreading false narratives to construct momentum and acquire political sympathy for its introduced protest deliberate for February 8,” Memon mentioned.
He added: “The provincial authorities has not issued any blanket detention orders towards PTI leaders or staff and that legislation enforcement businesses are appearing strictly throughout the legislation.”
