A petition filed in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday requested that all the finer details of the defence ministry’s report should be revealed to ascertain the identities of those who used Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s name in connection with an agreement struck between the state and Faizabad protestors.
The defence ministry’s report had already been submitted to the court in February this year after the Ministry of Defence secretary was asked to identify the culprits spreading such information.
Advocate Rana Abdul Qayyum filed the petition through his counsel Inamul Rahiem. The petitioner stated that being a party to the case, he had the right to ask for a copy of the report which was also a “public document”.
The petitioner also referred to the oath taken by members of the armed forces that prohibited them from taking part in any political activity, saying that violators were grilled on the charges of committing high treason.
A report submitted by a committee headed by Senator Raja Zafarul Haq was yet to be made public. The report was prepared after controversy erupted over changes in the Khatm-e-Nabuwat clause in the Election Act, 2017.
Last year in December, IHC had shown hope that the government would take action and reveal the identities of the persons who tried to malign the military by associating the army chief’s name in the agreement reached between the state and Faizabad protestors.
More than two weeks of a sit-in observed by Tehreek-e-Labaik supporters had brought life in the federal capital to a standstill and ended with the resignation of the then Law Minister Zaid Hamid.
Meanwhile, the IHC bench would take up the petition for hearing on March 13.
