As part of its written order on petitions filed by PTI’s Shandana Gulzar and Sharhyar Afridi, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) declared on Saturday that it is against the Constitution to arrest persons on suspicion of violating the peace. This ruling was made in response to their respective petitions.
The Islamabad deputy commissioner lacks the jurisdiction to issue detention orders under section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order, as found in 1980 presidential order (PO) No. 18, which the IHC deemed “illegal” the previous day.
Justice Babar Sattar’s 89-page decision ruled that the detention of individuals without proper proof constitutes an abuse of power, and it granted five petitions challenging the detention orders made by Deputy Commissioner Islamabad, while dismissing one.
In addition, the court found that DC Islamabad’s power to issue MPO directives violates the law, as did the chief commissioner’s 1992 notification that granted this authority. The federal government was given a three-month deadline by the court to establish regulations on the use of provincial authorities. According to the decision, the federal government shall take on the role of a provincial government in Islamabad instead of the chief commissioner.
Additionally, the court determined that no one can be detained solely on the suspicion that they might endanger public safety because Article 3 of the MPO contradicts with Article 10 (4) of the Constitution. “Arrests are made when an act is underway or has been committed.”
Misuse of MPO powers has persisted from dictatorial administrations to democratic ones, a fact that the court expressed remorse for in its judgment.
According to the IHC, detention under MPO is not legal because the law doesn’t apply until after an offense has been committed; the chief commissioner doesn’t have the power to apply federal or provincial laws; and neither pre-trial nor preventive detention powers can be exercised before the act is passed.
Justice Sattar observed that the authority to issue detention orders should legally rest with the federal government when he announced the reserved ruling on the petitions of PTI leaders earlier.
As of September 7, the IHC had issued a notice restraining the Islamabad deputy commissioner from using section 3 of the MPO powers till further notice.
