Islamabad:
A lawyer has approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking directions for the Supreme Court’s registrar to provide details of the newly established and inaugurated ‘basic rights monument’ in the point of view.
The project was initiated during the tenure of the former Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa.
Senter Abuzar Salman Khan Niazi filed the written petition in the LHC and named the SC registrar as the respondent. A bench with a single member, led by Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza, is ready to hear the petition Monday (today).
According to the petition, the petitioner had twice approached the SC registrar to get the relevant information but received no answer.
He had sought answers to six questions from the Justice Secretary regarding the project.
The first question concerned the process that was adopted for the sanction of the project. The other asked about the authority responsible for giving approval. The third sought clarification of the law, rule or regulation during which the project was sanctioned.
The fourth question related to the company or company dealing with design and architectural services, while the fifth focused on the procedure that followed to acquire such services.
In the meantime, the sixth question asked about the company or company hired for construction and development, along with the project’s total costs.
The petition argues that Article 3 of the Constitution imposes a duty and public salaried employees on the Constitution to eliminate all forms of exploitation. The rejection of giving the requested information constitutes a violation of this constitutional obligation.
The petition states that Article 3 of the Constitution imposes a positive obligation on the state to the state of extension of public salaried employees to ensure the elimination of all forms of exploitation as opposed to an estimate to act or not act. “Thus, the respondent’s rejection of giving the requested information constitutes an obvious violation of Article 3 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”
It claims that the overall courts in Catena of Judicial statements have emphasized that making access to information is a retical right to the people and further emphasized that all information that may be of any public importance must be made available to the public.
The petition says it is a matter of public importance that helps the process of justice, accountability and transparency; Therefore, the people of Pakistan have the right to know about the entire record for the ‘basic rights monument’, which was recently established and inaugurated in SC.
However, the respondent has unjustly failed to provide the necessary information, argued the petition.
“This right to information and access to information in all public importance issues is undiscutable a fundamental court guaranteed under Articles 19 and 19-A in the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973.”
It claims that this right came from the basic democratic principle that members of a representative society must be adequately informed to enable them to make well -founded and intelligent decisions on issues affecting their rights and interests.
“Therefore, the people of Pakistan have the right to know any public act, everything that is being done in a public way, by their public salaried employees and selected representatives.”
