The Peshawar High Court has referred petitions against the Sohail Afridi detention and the holding of other Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) figures to its chief justice so the matter can be placed before a larger bench, the party said on Tuesday.
According to PTI, a two-member bench of Justice Arshad Ali and Justice Faheem Ali took up the case. The petitions concern people detained on October 11 and earlier, among them Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s non-functional chief minister Sohail Afridi, Provincial Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, Junaid Akbar Khan, Dr Amjad Khan, Dr Amjad Ali, Ikram Ghazi and Iqbal Afridi, as well as other provincial and national assembly members, youth wing leaders and party workers.
Missed report deadline
PTI said the same bench had directed the authorities to submit a report on the detentions by October 30. On Tuesday, it said, the governor’s administration had not complied. Instead, the governor’s advocate general asked for a further three days to file the report rather than produce it in court that day.
The party argued that the court then fixed the next step after 13 days, which it called too long given what it described as the seriousness of the detentions. Rather than grant further relief at that hearing, the bench referred the matter to the chief justice for constitution of a larger bench.
What PTI is alleging
In its statement, PTI alleged that the governor and his administration were disregarding court orders. It also accused the court of repeatedly delaying proceedings in the Sohail Afridi detention matter. Those claims come from the party; the governor’s side’s public reply, if any, was not set out in the available accounts beyond the request for more time on the report.
A larger bench means more than two judges would hear the petitions together once the chief justice assigns the case. Until that happens, the legal challenge to the detentions remains pending at the high court level.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- October 11 and earlier: Sohail Afridi, Speaker Babar Saleem Swati and other PTI lawmakers and workers named in the petitions were detained, according to the party’s account of the case.
- By October 30: The two-judge PHC bench had ordered the authorities to submit a report on the detentions.
- Tuesday (hearing day): The governor’s advocate general sought three more days instead of filing the report; the bench referred the case to the PHC chief justice for a larger bench, PTI said.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Peshawar High Court ne Sohail Afridi aur doosre PTI logon ki nazar bandi ke cases bade bench ke liye chief justice ko bhej diye hain. Court ne pehle report 30 October tak mangayi thi, lekin governor ki side ne mazeed teen din maange. Party ka kehna hai ke hukumat ke orders follow nahi ho rahe aur case late ho raha hai. Ab jab tak bara bench nahi baithta, yeh legal mamla court mein pending rahega.
