Skip to main content

ECP cannot disqualify lawmakers named in ‘Fourth Schedule’: IHC

ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan was not authorised to disqualify any lawmaker named in the “Fourth schedule”, said the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in its verdict issued on Tuesday.

The high court released its verdict which elucidated powers of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for disqualifying a legislator whose name is mentioned in the Fourth Schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

Justice Amir Farooq announced the verdict, saying that ECP was not eligible to declare any lawmaker disqualified included in the list of persons.

Read More: CTD to modernize its Fourth Schedule supervision

Earlier, a petition was filed in the high court against ECP’s move which disqualified Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Shah Muhammad from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)’s Bannu-89 constituency over his inclusion in the list.

PTI’s Shah Muhammad had been disqualified as MPA and a member of district council by the commission on September 21 – 2017. Muhammad’s case had represented by prominent lawyer Dr Babar Awan.

Fourth Schedule

The Fourth Schedule is a list of proscribed individuals who are suspected of terrorism and/or sectarianism under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997. After credible intelligence information, their names are included in the fourth schedule as prescribed by the Home Department and can be subjected to restrictions on travel, speech and business.

The National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) manages the list of proscribed people in ‘Fourth Schedule’ of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) after collection of data from the federal areas, provinces including the federal capital Islamabad and Gilgit-Baltistan region.

Read More: Persons placed on fourth schedule to face more curbs

Special Branch of local police initiates placement of the names on the ‘Fourth Schedule’, whereas, Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Operations forwards reports to the commission of the concerned division. Later, the commission forwards the names of proscribed persons to home secretary’s office of that province. the commissioner’s officer forwards the file to the interior secretary if the recommendations come from Islamabad.

In some cases, relevant security agencies forward names to the home secretary of the province or the Ministry of Interior while few of the cases are initiated by provincial home departments or the ministry.

The post ECP cannot disqualify lawmakers named in ‘Fourth Schedule’: IHC appeared first on ARYNEWS.



from ARYNEWS http://bit.ly/2GJjzrP

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rouhani calls Imran, discusses resumption of trade

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Iran on Wednesday discussed full resumption of bilateral trade, which was halted last month because of the Covid-19 pandemic. “The two sides stressed the need to reactivate borders and border markets and strengthen trade ties by following health guidelines,” a statement issued by the Iranian presidency on the telephonic conversation between Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Dr Hassan Rouhani said. President Rouhani had called the prime minister for Ramazan greetings. Border trade between the two countries was suspended after a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC), held on March 13, decided to close all borders because of the pandemic. Islamabad partially relaxed the restrictions on April 21, allowing the import of certain food items and provision of petrol and diesel to the border areas. Cargo traffic from Iran was allowed for three days every week. Cargo movement between the two countries takes place through five border crossings — Taftan...

Today’s outlook: Sindh CM discusses reopening markets with PM Khan

Here are some of the stories we are expecting to follow today (Thursday): Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah will take Prime Minister Imran Khan into confidence over reopening shops and markets across the province. The reopened markets will have to follow SOPs. Sindh Transport Minister Awais Qadir Shah will discuss SOPs with transporters for resuming public transport in the coming days. The meeting will be held at the Sindh Assembly building at 1:30pm. The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority has proposed a price cut of Rs20.68 per litre for petrol in its summary. Imam-e-Kaaba Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais has said Masjid Al Haram and Masjid Al Nabawi will be reopened for worshipers soon. He said the Kaaba is being sterilised using latest technologies. Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar will head various meetings during his visit to Bahawalpur. As of Thursday, Pakistan has reported more than 15,500 confirmed coronavirus cases. ICYMI: An amendment to the National Accountability Or...

If Pakistani elderly self-distance infections could drop 30%: study

If we do nothing, COVID-19 could infect 206 million Pakistanis and kill 691,000. This is the estimation of researchers from the Imperial College London COVID-19 Response Team who have published country-wise projections in a March 26 report ‘ The Global Impact of COVID-19 and Strategies for Mitigation and Suppression ’ Furthermore, using an infection fatality rate from China, this means 4.4 million Pakistanis would require hospitalisation and from among those, 917,000 individuals would require critical care. Pakistan has a population of 220 million people. The research is based on the infection fatality rate from China, country health care system capacities and that one person with coronavirus is likely to infect 3 others. (You can find the excel sheet with Pakistan numbers here: Imperial-College-COVID19-Global-unmitigated-mitigated-suppression-scenarios.xlsx ) Forty-seven researchers crunched the numbers and made these projections to give countries, including Pakistan, some idea of...