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Friday, April 19, 2013

SC orders Lal Masjid report to be made public

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that the Lal Masjid report be made public, rejecting Lal Masjid Commission’s plea to keep the report secret.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed heard suo moto case of Lal Masjid.
On December 4, 2012, a three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had constituted a one-member judicial commission to probe the Lal Masjid Operation, launched in 2007 by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf against the mosque for challenging the writ of the state.
“On having gone through the report and facts we are of the opinion that there is no restriction in any lay not to make report public or to keep it confidential therefore the report is hereby allowed to be made public,” Justice Chaudhry ruled.
The court directed the office to prepare copies for all the members of the bench and keep the original in safe custody.
The court ruled that as per Article 19A of the Constitution, every citizen has the right to have access to information in all the matters of public importance, subject to regulation and reasonable restrictions imposed by the law.
The court observed that the incident of Lal Masjid was in the knowledge and notice of general public and during the hearings of the petitions, concerns were put forward by the parties in the interest of justice therefore one man-commission was appointed.
The court asked Tariq Asad, counsel for the petitioners to go through the contents of commission report and assist it to further proceed with the matter accordingly and adjourned the hearing for date-in-office.
Tariq Asad however, informed the court that his assistant was receiving threats and some unknown people even tried to kidnap him. At this the court summoned IGP Islamabad on the next date of hearing for submitting reply in the instant matter.
The one-man judicial commission headed by Justice Shehzad Al-Shaikh, senior Judge of Federal Shariat Court was constituted after the federal police failed to file a satisfactory report over the matter.
The judicial Commission was assigned the task to ascertain as to whether the state had compensated the heirs of those killed in the operation, whether the dead bodies were identified and handed over to their heirs, whether action had been taken against the people who are responsible for the tragedy, whether the people who are responsible for the tragedy could be marked with the available evidences and facts.

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

 

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