Cypher case: Justice Tariq Masood rescues himself from hearing appeals

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court’s Judge, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood on Tuesday rescued himself from hearing the appeals against the Registrar Office’s objections in petitions, seeking an investigation through a Memogate-style high-powered commission into alleged ‘foreign conspiracy’ behind the ouster of former prime minister Imran Khan’s government.

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The Supreme Court had fixed the hearing of appeals for today (January 24). However, Justice Tariq Masood sent the appeals back to the Chief Justice, to be fixed before another judge.

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The Petition:

Petitioner Naeem Ul Hassan through Advocate Azhar Siddique had filed a petition in the Supreme Court, praying that a high-powered commission of inquiry should be constituted to hold inquisitorial proceedings with regard to the anti-state activities conducted by the respondent political parties through mala fide and abuse of power under the provisions of the Constitution and for committing sedition and treason against the democratically and legally elected government.

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The respondents named in the petition include the Federation of Pakistan, Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Law, National Assembly speaker, Election Commission of Pakistan, Federal Investigation Agency, PTI, PML-N, PPP, JUI-F, and MQM-P.

The petitioner said that PM Imran had taken various measures to restore normalcy in the affairs of the state but local political parties had been “aiding and assisting extremism in the country”.

Registrar’s objection:

However, the registrar returned the petition on the grounds that the petitioner had not pointed out as to what questions of public interest were involved with reference to fundamental rights.

“The ingredients for evoking extra ordinary jurisdictions of this court under Article 184 (3) have not been satisfied.”

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The registrar also explained that the petitioner had not approached any other appropriate forum to resolve the issue or provided any justification for not doing so. Among the other reasons, the registrar said multiple misconceived prayers were made in the petition.