Faizabad Dharna Commission Summons Former PM Shehbaz Sharif for Inquiry

On Monday, the Faizabad sit-in commission issued a summons to former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, scheduling his statement recording for January 3 in connection with the case.

Sources indicate that the President of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has been summoned due to his role as the chief minister of Punjab during the sit-in at Faizabad.

In November of the previous year, the federal government established a three-member commission tasked with identifying individuals who planned, financed, and supported the 2017 sit-in at Islamabad’s Faizabad area.

The commission’s mandate extends to recommending legal action against those responsible for orchestrating and executing the protest, which disrupted daily life in Rawalpindi and Islamabad between November 6 and November 27, 2017.

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Background on the protest reveals that the Tehreek-e-Labbaik, under the leadership of Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi, staged the sit-in to protest changes made in lawmakers’ oaths, asserting their belief in the finality of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as the last messenger of God. The 21-day sit-in prompted the government to accede to Tehreek-e-Labbaik’s demands after an attempt to disperse the protest resulted in violent demonstrations nationwide.

Consequently, the PML-N government dismissed its law minister, Zahid Hamid, and the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the sit-in on November 21, 2017.

In a previous development, a division bench led by Justice Qazi Faez Isa delivered a verdict on February 6, 2019, in the sit-in case, criticizing the role of intelligence agencies. Following his assumption of the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) office in September of the same year, Justice Isa scheduled hearings for petitions challenging the SC’s February 2019 verdict, which directed intelligence agencies not to exceed their constitutional mandates.

It is noteworthy that in April 2019, an intelligence agency contested the SC’s verdict in the Faizabad sit-in case, expressing concerns about its potential adverse impact on the morale of the armed forces.

In a separate development, on December 30, the probe panel called former Director General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt-Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed for the second time to record his statement this week.