ISLAMABAD -UNS: The apex court has been urged through a petition to ask the federal government to seek its opinion about legal status of Official Secrets Act (OSA) and the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) in the backdrop of President Dr Arif Alvi’s statement that he had neither assented to the two bills nor specified the reasons for returning them to the Parliament for reconsideration.
A petition filed in the apex court on Tuesday through petitioner Advocate Zulfikar Ahmed Bhutta said fate of the two laws should be determined as president said he had neither assented to nor returned the bills.
Moreover, there was a likelihood that an accused facing trial under the two amended laws could seek acquittal by taking advantage of the ambiguity surrounding the law taking plea that it had lost its legal standing due to controversy, the lawyer told media.
Bhutta, through a three-page petition, contented that the Supreme Court should order the federal government to invoke Article 186 of the Constitution within 10 days.
Article 186 deals with the advisory jurisdiction of the top court, which the government can invoke at any time by sending a reference to the apex court for seeking its opinion on the question of law regarding the legal status of the bills, especially in view of Articles 71 and 75 of the Constitution.
The petition has been filed under Article 184(3) of the Constitution by invoking the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court for the enforcement of fundamental rights.
