Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa remarked on Wednesday while resuming the hearing on Faizabad sit-in, that the court wanted to find out who was the mastermind behind the sit-in.
The bench resumed hearing in the Faizabad sit-in case after fresh replies were submitted by the government, the Election Commission of Pakistan and a former chairman of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority.
A three-member bench of the Supreme Court also rejected the fact-finding committee formed by the government to probe the Faizabad sit-in.
The bench is led by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and includes Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Aminuddin Khan. The bench had allowed anyone affected by the matter to file a reply by October 27.
When the hearing began, Justice Qazi Faez Isa remarked that the commission’s TOR’s had cleared everyone already. The court instead recommended that an inquiry commission be set up for the issue.
Multiple review petitions had been filed against the verdict issued in 2019 by PTI, Intelligence Bureau, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority, MQM, former interior minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, and the Election Commission among others.
However, several petitioners had sought to withdraw their petitions as the matter was fixed for hearing after Justice Isa became Chief Justice.
The federal government told the court in its reply that it had set up a fact-finding committee to investigate the sit-in and how it was handled.
The terms of reference of the committee, as listed in the government reply, include collecting relevant documents, recording witness statements, accessing the matter under relevant laws determining the role of all those who were involved in managing and handling the sit-in.
The Election Commission of Pakistan has also submitted a reply absolving Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan of anti-state activities and financial wrongdoing.
On Tuesday, Absar Alam, who headed PEMRA at the time of the sit-in, had told the court that he had been under pressure from then spymaster General Faiz Hameed and had complained to the prime minister and army chief of that time about the matter.
