ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — The leaders of the opposition in the National Assembly and the Senate have asked the Federal Constitutional Court to order the release of Sohail Afridi, the suspended Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, and other elected members held since governor’s rule was imposed in the province last month.
The petition, filed on Saturday by Mahmood Khan Achakzai and Allama Raja Nasir Abbas through their counsel, Advocate Moazzam Butt, covers Afridi, provincial assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, and other members of the provincial and national assemblies. It asks the court to summon the detained lawmakers, examine the legality of their custody, and order their immediate release.
It also asks the authorities to disclose where the lawmakers are being held and the legal grounds for their detention.
What the petition argues
The petitioners argue that detaining elected representatives undermines the mandate voters gave them, and that targeting lawmakers for their political affiliation violates Articles 4, 14, 17, and 25 of the Constitution, which protect due process, dignity, freedom of association, and equality before the law.
They contend that even the emergency powers in Articles 232, 234, and 245 cannot override fundamental rights, that governor’s rule does not suspend those rights, and that every government action remains open to review by the constitutional court.
The petition also asks the court to decide whether state institutions can restrict the political activity and parliamentary role of elected representatives.
How the detentions began
President Asif Ali Zardari signed the advice imposing an emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on October 11, and the provincial government’s powers passed to Governor Faisal Karim Kundi. A day later, a federal minister said Afridi and some members of his cabinet were in preventive custody. Afridi has not appeared in public since.
A federal minister has said governor’s rule will end after six months, while the emergency will stay until peace returns to the province.
Afridi also faces arrest warrants in the May 9 Radio Pakistan attack case, which a Peshawar anti-terrorism court reissued earlier this week.
The PTI has separately asked the constitutional court to review its November 5 order on the provincial government’s petitions against the emergency and governor’s rule. It was not immediately clear when the court would take up the new petition.
