#Justice4All protest was held in Karachi for Kamran Faisal, Shahzeb Khan & Qadri Brothers
Justice for Shahzeb Khan
LAHORE: Peaceful Protest LAHORE ‘Justice for Shahzeb Khan’
STAY GRANTED: Constitutional Petition Preventing PTA from Blocking of Websites
On the 17th of April 2012, seven individuals, Dr. Awab Alvi, Sana Saleem, Faisal Kapadia, Nazim Haji, Naeem Sadiq, Noman Quadri and Ayesha Tammy Haq, through their lawyer Haider Waheed with Basil Nabi Malik, petitioned the High Court of Sindh at Karachi challenging the arbitrary and random acts of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in blocking/ censoring and restricting access to various websites in violation of the fundamental rights of the owners of the websites/online forums as well as the public at large, and without affording the aggrieved persons an opportunity of being heard or due notice.
It was prayed in the said petition that no website could be blocked/ censored or restricted without affording the aggrieved parties (including the public at large) due notice and an opportunity to be heard in accordance with Articles 4, 9, 10-A, 18, 19, 19A, 20 and 25 of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973, read with Section 6 of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Act, 1996.
The Honorable High Court of Sindh issued notice to the Federation of Pakistan, through the Secretary, Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, through its Chairman, and furthermore ordered the PTA not to block any website other than in accordance with the provisions of the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-Organization) Act, 1996.
It may be noted that as per the PTA Act, the correct procedure to be followed before blocking or censoring of websites is as per Section 6 of the said Act, which states,
Section 6: Responsibilities of the Authority.—In exercising its functions and powers under this Act, the Authority shall ensure that—
- Rights of licensees are duly protected;
- All of its decisions and determinations are made promptly, in an open equitable, non-discriminatory, consistent and transparent manner;
- All applications made to it are disposed of expeditiously;
- The persons affected by its decisions or determinations are given a due notice thereof and provided with an opportunity of being heard;
- Fair competition in the telecommunication sector exists and is maintained
- The interests of users of telecommunication services are duly safeguarded and protected.
The said petition has not been made to stop the banning of any website or forum contrary to the rules already laid out by the PTA but has instead the objective of bringing the entire process under judicial review to insure its fairness, transparency and to provide a proper system of redress of the parties owning these websites and forums and protect the fundamental rights of the public at large, including internet users, in Pakistan.
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Mob Beating Thieves in Karachi
I’m seriously saddened to see the mob mentality of people in Karachi beating these crooks &/or snatchers on Shaheed-e-Millat road, but what can you do to bring this mob under control in total lawlessness with no confidence in the state police to take these crooks to task
The way this mob was progressing it had “Sialkot brothers” mob murder written all over it. If you watch the video it had some well dressed [possibly educated] people also taking a whack at these alleged crooks.
I’m NOT defending these crooks but im also NOT for mindless mob justice, but my question to YOU … What do you do? How long will the people take this shit before all hell breaks loose?
[VIDEO WARNING – GRAPHIC SCENES]
Dr. Aafia found Guilty – The Missing Links
I can feel Awab’s pain as someone who did follow this case so closely, and I do not mistake his patience now as anything due to lack of sensitivity. Contrary, I admire him for that.
Perhaps it would help to recap the points that were elaborated in the report ‘Don’t Blame the Victim‘ released from this forum in late 2008.
The basic stance was that in this case, a victim had been turned into the accused. That is an old tactic of patriarchy. In this case, there was not one allegations but four, and justice required that they should be addressed in the order in which they had appeared: Continue Reading
16 Dec decision of Supreme Court – A Critical Analysis
By Barrister Amjad Malik
16 Dec Supreme Court short order was an expected response of superior judiciary. Federation and all provinces through their lawyers jointly consented to its repeal, and none came to rescue the beneficiaries and even academic discussion was not made possible on the topic of powers to issue and right course of action to dispose off a bad law. 342 members of the Parliament jointly expressed their unwillingness to discuss and vote out this notorious ordinance despite the fact that it relates to them and their future on the whole as a club, and any order would have far reaching implications on the future of their brethrens good or bad. In that situation, what do you expect from judges.
They could not invent a defence for that ordinance so hated by the majority of the people, media and intelligentsia. If politicians were expecting leniency or a different judgment, its their own fault, and the problem lies with their capacity or capability not with the short order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. On 5 August the writer in response to 31 July 09 decision which scrapped Gen Musharraf’s 3rd Nov PCO and emergency and wrote,
“Overall, a welcoming order, full of happy tidings, but similar amount of flaws, unaddressed anomalies, and legal circles expect a lot more explanation in detailed judgement, and I hope the order does the job in the end. This order is also reflection of various ‘compulsions’ under which Pakistani society goes through daily. The short order incites that there is more to come, and a detailed judgement will open a lot of avenues for further litigation. On the outset, Superior Court is mindful of the limitations they are working under and one can say that the decision has set the track on which SC is likely to go in near future. However, it is not a final decision, this is part of a series of decisions we must expect in the days to come”.
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From Dogar to Iftikhar Chaudhry — what a difference!
Sohail Khan, a journalist from The News writes an explosive artcile sharing the remarkable proceedings at the Supreme Court of Pakistan where Sheikh Afzal owner of Haris Steel Mills names big bribe takers Agrees to settle Rs9 billion Bank of Punjab claim, the main accused in the Rs9 billion financial scam at the Bank of Punjab (BoP), on Tuesday revealed before the bench of the Supreme Court that he paid Rs35 million to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Babar Awan for winning the case in the apex court. He alleged that Dr Babar Awan took Rs40 million, Sharifuddin Pirzada Rs10 million, Malik Muhammad Qayyum, the then attorney general, Rs20 million and Ali Waseem, the son of Waseem Sajjad, Rs7.5 million. Afzal said Dr Babar Awan took Rs5 million as fee and Rs35 million for getting a favourable verdict from the then Islamabad High Court.
In addition to these leading lawyers, Afzal said he had given Rs400-500 million to Hamesh Khan, former BoP president, Rs30 million to Aziz Ahmed, BoP Control Risk Manager, Rs50 million to Haroon Aziz, Rs10 million to Shoaib Qureshi, Rs40 million to Saleem Mirza, treasury head of the bank, Rs5 million to Fazil Asghar who helped him escape despite being on the Exit Control List (ECL). Read the full artcile in THE NEWS
The Blasphemy Law: An Objective Assessment from Religious, Legal & Social Perspectives
The Peoples Resistance invites you to. “The Blasphemy Law: An Objective Assessment from Religious, Legal & Social Perspectives”
Date: Saturday 24th October, 2009
Time: 5:30 PM
Location: PMA House, Karachi
Some Speakers include:
Dr. Khalid Zaheer,
Advocate Zain Sheikh
Other notable Human Rights Experts and Minority Group Representatives will speak and attend the Seminar.
Chaired and Moderated by Retd Justice Mr. Rana Bhagwandas.
The Peoples’ Resistance (PR) is a civil society group that advocates and supports the Rule of Law and Constitutionalism in our homeland. We, at the PR, are deeply perturbed by the recent blasphemy related incidents in Gojra and other places where many innocent people were subjected to shameless violence and destruction and would like to sponsor an open and objective dialogue aimed at understanding the Blasphemy Law and its implications for our society. In this context, we are organizing a seminar on Saturday, October 24, 2009, at the PMA House, Karachi at 5:30pm under the title of:
Justice Rukhsana Ahmed > Renewed Faith in Judiciary
Justice Rukhsana Ahmed is one of the latest set of ten appointees to the Sindh High Court, Jehan Ara, the super-energetic President of P@SHA, wrote a detailed post about the big day she had with Justice Ms. Rukhsana Ahmed in her new chambers.
Feudal Lord Varyam Faqir goes Free on a Compromise
DailyTimes reports that Waryam Faqir was acquitted of the murder charge of Wali Dad by Additional District and Sessions Judge, Abdul Naeem Memon. It was reported that both the sides (the complainant and the accused) submitted a compromise deed before the court requesting to dispose off the matter in view of out of court settlement arrived at between the parties
It must be recalled that barely 3 months ago the court had ordered the arrest of Varyam Faqir on the muder charge of Wali Dad, an elder of Kashkheli Tribe in April, but during the court hearing, Varyam Faqir managed to run away. It is now that this feudal lord was able to present a compromise document to let him go free.
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23rd March Parade, went Missing, so what!
Guest Blog by Omar Javaid
The Parade on 23rd march was canceled by the prime minister out of austerity. The cancellation was announced a couple of week back. Then 23rd march came and went without the grand event which was considered the hallmark of this day. It was astonishing to see the legacy getting broken and the reason that was cited, but most startling was the inaction, it didn’t bothered anybody, never sparked any uproar, never ignited any heated debate, there wasn’t any criticism, it almost went unnoticed.
The parade of 23rd March use to be morale booster, a blatant exhibit of Pakistan’s military strength, cultural diversity, and national integrity; for the masses it was an annual dose of self esteem and a sense of identity. This dose went missing this time, and didn’t bother anybody. It is unlikely that masses are stuffed or overdosed with self respect, confidence and esteem, rather the contrary seems more true, they are starved, their energies evaporated by continuous bombardment of negativity (there is hardly a good news in media), they are exhausted, disappointed, frustrated, contempt on present state of affair, politics, judiciary (though just been revitalized … ?), role of military in northern areas, extremism, and most importantly the threat of unemployment for employed, torture of unemployment for unemployed, and all of this multiplied by crippling inflation.
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Dogar may be appointed Chief Election Commisioner after retirement
The News is reporting that Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar is likely to be appointed the chief election commissioner (CEC) after his retirement in March this year replacing the incumbent CEC, Justice (retd) Qazi Mohammad Farooq, who retires in mid-March after completing his three-year constitutionally mandated tenure. Dogar is set to retire on March 21 which is his retiring date on reaching the superannuating age of 65 year.
Qazi Farooq was appointed the CEC on March 15, 2006 by President Pervez Musharraf who had ironically replaced Justice Dogar, who worked as the acting CEC for more than a year. Its apparent that Asif Zardari still chooses to carefully appoint his ‘yes men’ in strategic designations.
Dogar’s Daughter results linked with Islamic Medical College admission
As if the revelations could not get any worse – Ansar Abbasi in his article in The News today trumps Pakistan with an even more interesting investigation about the fiasco surrounding the Intermediate results of the daughter of Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr. Abdul Hameed Dogar.
What has come to light is that all this was orchestrated so she could get admission into Islamic Medical College as with her initial low grade at 640 Farah could not even apply to appear in the admission test which was scheduled for September 21st a fact which was confirmed by Major (retd) Munir Azam, who was associated with the college administration So in preparation to ensure that she appears in the admission test the bureaucratic wheels were set in motion and from the 10th of September the Chairman of the Federal School board was able to muster up the necessary re-examinations to gingerly tip Farah’s score over the magical 660 barrier.
On one hand every parent wishes for the best education for their children, but sadly the irony of this specific case is that she unfortunately happens to be the daughter of CJP Hameed Dogar, who was the judge to replace, the then Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry who was thrown out of office for a number of allegations of which one incidentally was helping his son Dr. Arsalan in his CSS exams. With such a torturous history it seems Justice Dog-ar has too been caught red handed literally with his pants down
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Dogar’s Daughter get her marks increased – Is that Justice?
Ansar Abbasi in his article in The News today reveals a very alarming discovery concerning the daughter of Chief Justice of Pakistan, Abdul Hameed Dogar.. Farah Hameed Dogar had recently appeared in the FSc Exams [12 grade] and when in August the results were announced she had barely passed with 640 marks placing her in Grade ‘C’. The low grade actually then prevents her from applying into the much sought after Medical colleges in Punjab. But after some underhanded effort she was able to get her mark sheet re-issued at 661 marks making her reach the new Grade ‘B’ and hence forth making her eligible to apply to any Medical college in the province
On 20th & later again on 29th August, Farah applied to the examination board for a ‘re-tabulation’ of her marks, which is the only possile solution before physically reappearing for another exam. The examination department re-calculates the marks in an attempt to figure out any discrepancy in the addition of the mark, but the papers are never re-evaluated. The re-checking helped Farah increase her grand total by only one mere mark landing her at 641
After having exhausted all permissible means to increase the grade it seems she thence forth received a helping hand for the Board chairman who some how managed to have examiners re-examine her paper and that process help nudge her into the Grade B situation.
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