Islamabad High Court reserves verdict in case over ordinance on detention periods
The Islamabad High Court in Pakistan concluded hearings and reserved its verdict in a case concerning the constitutionality of the 2024 presidential ordinance. The document increased the maximum period of detention for investigative purposes in cases of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from 14 to 40 days.
As Dawn reports, Justice Raja Inam Amin Minhas reserved the verdict after hearing the parties' arguments in Najeeullah's petition.
Petitioner's arguments
The petitioner's lawyer, Azhar Siddique, said that following discussions, parliament reduced the maximum period of such detention from 90 to 14 days. According to him, the president later increased it to 40 days through an ordinance, changing a provision that parliament had already established by law.
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Siddique also said that the ordinance was referred to the assembly for consideration, but it did not approve it and instead rejected it. In the lawyer's view, this indicates a lack of parliamentary support for the document. He also argued that the ordinance was likely introduced to extend the detention of the PTI founder for investigative purposes.
Government's position
Deputy Attorney General Mian Faisal Irfan opposed the petition and urged the court to dismiss it. He stated that the ordinance had already expired and that the Lahore High Court had previously heard a case related to this document.
The government representative also argued that the petitioner was not a person whose rights had been violated and therefore could not maintain this petition. In response, Siddique stressed that the key issue was the constitutional question of the limits of the president's authority to issue ordinances and whether they can be used to amend a law passed by parliament.
