IHC Turns Down Petition Seeking Ban On Public Gatherings Due To Covid-19

(@fidahassanain)

IHC turns down petition seeking ban on public gatherings due to Covid-19

IHC CJ Athar Minallah observes that this is executive’s job to enforce judgments.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-Dec 3rd, 2020) Islamabad High Court turned down a petition seeking ban on public gathering due to Covid-19.

Chief justice Athar Minallah passed the order while hearing the petition.

“This is executive’s job to enforce judgments” the CJ remarked.

The CJ asked the petitioner to approach parliament and the executive to resolve this matter.

The petitioner had filed the petition and submitted that public gatherings were being held in different parts of the country despite that there was a clear order regarding implementation of SOPs to control spread of Covid-19.

He asked the court to ban public gatherings due to Coronavirus.

At this, CJ Minallah observed that the court had already ordered the government for implementation of SOPs to contain Covid-19. But the court is not inclined to exercise its extraordinary constitutional jurisdiction if the executive was not going to enforce it.

However, the CJ expressed serious concerns over non-implementation of orders.

“Judgments, state institutions and political leadership remained unenforced and thus rule of law is undermined and consequently it profoundly impacts the confidence of the people in the judiciary,” the judgment given earlier held.

Fida Hussnain

Fida Hussnain is a lahore based journalist. He writes on politics, religion, social issues and climate change. He is also a research fellow at University of Gujrat.