Islamabad:
A lawyer approached the High Court of Lahore (LHC), seeking instructions for the Supreme Court registrar to provide details concerning the “monument of fundamental rights” recently established and inaugurated in the premises of the Supreme Court.
The project was launched during the mandate of the former chief judge of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa.
The petitioner Abuzar Salman Khan Niazi filed the request in short in the LHC, appointing the registrar SC as a defendant. A unique bench, led by judge Shams Mehmood Mirza, should hear the petition on Monday (today).
According to the petition, the petitioner had twice approached the registrar SC to obtain the relevant information but has received no response.
He had asked answers to six questions from the registrar concerning the project.
The first question concerned the process adopted to sanction the project. The second inquired about the authority responsible for granting approval. The third asked for clarification on the law, the rule or the regulation under which the project was sanctioned.
The fourth question concerned the company or the company engaged in design and architecture services, while the fifth focused on the procedure followed to obtain such services.
Meanwhile, the sixth question has inquired about the company or the company hired for construction and development, as well as the total cost of the project.
The petition argues that article 3 of the Constitution requires state officials and public officials to eliminate all forms of exploitation. The refusal to provide the requested information constitutes a violation of this constitutional obligation.
The petition stipulates that article 3 of the Constitution imposes a positive duty on the State by extension of public officials to ensure the elimination of all forms of exploitation as opposed to a discretionary power of acting or not acting. “Thus, the refusal of the respondent to provide the requested information constitutes a blatant violation of article 3 of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”
He argues that the higher courts, in Carena, judicial declarations, have stressed that the realization of access to information is a justiciable right of the people and also stressed that all the information that can be of public importance must be made available to the general public.
The petition stipulates that it is a public importance which helps the process of equity, responsibility and transparency; Consequently, the inhabitants of Pakistan have the right to know the entire “monument of fundamental rights” recently created and inaugurated in SC.
However, the respondent did not just provide the required information, argued the petition.
“This right to information and access to information in all questions of public importance is undoubtedly a fundamental right guaranteed under articles 19 and 19-A of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973.”
He maintains that this right emanated from the fundamental democratic principle that members of a representative society must be adequately informed to enable them to make well -prosecuted and intelligent decisions concerning the questions which affect their rights and their interests.
“Consequently, the inhabitants of Pakistan have the right to know all public acts, all that is done in a public manner, by their public officials and the chosen representatives.”
