SC to hear plea against registrar’s decision over Afghan deportations – Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Justice Yahya Afridi on Monday ordered to repair an attraction against the registrar’s refu­sal to entertain a petition, in search of a restraining order against the caretaker authorities’s decision to deport Afghans, earlier than a Supreme Court bench.

The registrar’s workplace had returned the petition on the grounds that it failed to level out what questions of public significance within the current case had been concerned with reference to the enforcement of any of the elemental rights assured underneath the Constitution.

Filed by way of Advocate Umer Ijaz Gilani, a joint petition moved on behalf of Farhatullah Babar, Senator Mushtaq Ahmed, Amina Masood Janjua, Mohsin Dawar, Jibran Nasir, Syed Muaz Shah, Pastor Ghazala Parveen, Imaan Zainab Mazari, Ahmad Shabbar, Advocate Imran Shafiq, Luke Victor, Sijal Shafiq, and Rohail Kasi, pleaded earlier than the apex court docket to restrain the federal authorities and its establishments from detaining, forcefully deporting, or in any other case harassing anybody who possesses a proof of residence, Afghan Citizen Card, asylum-seeker software issued by UNHCR or pre-screening slip issued by its companions Sharp and Sehar.

“It is my understanding that Justice Afridi, in a quick listening to, has ordered fixing the petition earlier than a bench of the apex court docket to determine concerning the maintainability of the case,” stated Advocate Umer Ijaz Gilani whereas speaking to Dawn.

However, he added that he would wait nonetheless for the written order, which has not but been issued.

The petition pleaded {that a} route needs to be issued, requiring the federal authorities not to detain, forcefully deport, or in any other case harass anybody born in Pakistan with a declare to birthright citizenship in accordance with Section 4 of the Citizenship Act, 1951, and the ruling of the Islamabad High Court in 2021 case of Hafiz Hamdullah Saboor.

It additional contended that the federal authorities needs to be requested to allow UNHCR and its accomplice organisations to register, expedite the processing, and determine on all asylum-in search of purposes filed by foreigners presently residing in Pakistan.

Additionally, the petition alleged that the federal government’s coverage has failed to present any mechanism for distinguishing between birthright residents and unlawful immigrants.

Published in Dawn, November twenty first, 2023