Supreme Court rejects plea to take suo motu notice on PTI protest deaths

The Supreme Court (SC) rejected the verbal plea to take Suo Motu notice of the deaths occurred during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) protest in D-Chowk Islamabad.

While the PTI says eight of its members were slain, government sources say at least three Rangers and two police officers received martyrdom during the demonstration.

The party confirmed that dozens of innocent workers were martyred by direct bullets from government machinery. “So far, the party has received the details of eight martyrs,” said the PTI spokesperson.

The martyrs include Anis Shehzad Satti, Malik Mubeen Aurangzeb, Abdul Qadir, Malik Safdar Ali, Ahmed Wali, Muhammad Ilyas, and Abdul Rashid, as per the statement.

Earlier, the spokesperson appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan for a suo motu notice of the heinous killing of the workers and ordered legal action against the Prime Minister, the Interior Minister, and the Inspectors General of Islamabad and Punjab.

The additional advocate general asked the constitutional bench to take up Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) additional advocate general verbal plea during the hearing of a case related to the climate change authority, in which he appeared via video link.

Justice Musarrat Hilali responded by warning against expressing political opinions while the Supreme Court is in session.

Justice Aminuddin Khan, the head of the constitutional bench, stated that the court is unable to examine issues that have not been brought before it. The bench does not want to comment on matters that are outside the court’s jurisdiction, according to Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail.

The request was then verbally denied by the constitutional bench.

Earlier, In a press release issued on Wednesday, the party spokesperson stated, “In light of the government’s brutality and plans to turn the federal capital into a slaughterhouse for unarmed citizens, we are announcing the temporary suspension of our peaceful protest.”

Party spokesperson condemned the alleged “killing” and “terror and brutality against peaceful protesters in the name of an operation”.

The Imran Khan-founded party said that it would announce the future course of action in the light of guidance from jailed former prime minister Imran Khan. “The party’s political and core committees would analyze the details of the government’s brutality and later, the findings would be shared with the PTI founder.”