Pakistani dissidents hail their country's apex court ruling

A group of prominent Pakistani dissidents Friday welcomed the ruling of their country's Supreme Court ruling, restoring its elected parliament after its unlawful dissolution by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The Pakistan Supreme Court has ruled on the right side of history by upholding the Constitution of Pakistan, South Asians Against Terrorism and for Human Rights (SAATH), a pro-democracy outfit of Pakistanis said.

This is also the time when all institutions of the state look back at the debris of the last four years, it said in a statement.

SAATH said while the latest Supreme Court judgment is a positive step it is also important that the horrendous practice of 'disappearing' people should end.

Prominent members of SAATH include former Senator Afrasiab Khattak, Member of Parliament Mohsin Dawar, former ambassadors Husain Haqqani and Kamran Shafi, former editor of Daily Times Rashed Rahman, columnist Mohammed Taqi, journalists Taha Siddiqui, Gul Bukhari and Marvi Sirmed, and activists Gulalai Ismail, Tahira Jabeen, Shahzad Irfan and Farhan Kaghzi.

Scant regard was given to the Constitution, the Economy, Foreign Affairs, and Governance, under Imran Khan, they said.

The Opposition was relentlessly pursued for no reason by the coercive organs of the 'Hybrid Junta', they added.

The dissident journalists, politicians, diplomats, and intellectuals, several of whom live in exile for fear for their lives, cited the persecution of some of their colleagues.

Talking about Ali Wazir, an imprisoned member of the National Assembly, the SAATH statement said he was locked up for nine months on a completely spurious charge for which no proof has been presented in three years and bail has been denied against the spirit of the constitution.

In its statement, SAATH hoped that Pakistan's institutions of state will realise that it never helps to 'engineer' politics and that all Institutions should operate within the confines set for them by the Constitution.

It is also hoped that Pakistan will now go to fair and free polls and that the government that is formed after the people have spoken will give immediate attention and relief to the oppressed communities, whether in Balochistan or in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, the SAATH statement said.