PBC seeks to be impleaded in Jang Group petition
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) on Monday filed an application asking the Supreme Court to implead the bar as a party in both important cases against the military court and the Jang Group's petition for the freedom of the press. Rana Ijaz Ahmed Khan, Vice Chairman of the PBC in his representative capacity, filed the application suggesting that the bar have a vital interest in the outcome of the case.
The application states that the independence of the judiciary has to be determined in the petitions of which a nine-member Supreme Court bench was seized with to determine the validity of the military courts established in Sindh and now extended to other provinces of Pakistan.
The application said earlier the PBC and other representative bodies of the lawyers were always invited to assist the court in important cases in the past. But this time a departure has been made which necessitated the PBC to file this application.
About the petition being heard by a three-member bench moved by the Jang Group and PFUJ, a representative body of journalists, involving the freedom of the press, the application suggested it was the fundamental right of the people to receive and get unpolluted information in the free market ideas.
The application said the Constitution provides a guarantee to protect the press through state invasion and therefore the court should lay down some parameters in this regard.