ISLAMABAD: A petition on Friday instituted in Supreme Court of Pakistan requesting it to issue directions for medical examination of Awami Raj Party’s sitting Member of National Assembly (MNA) Jamshed Dasti through a team of any province other than Punjab.
Advocate Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta filed a petition under Article 184 (3) making federal government and Punjab government respondents.
The petitioner also sought relief pleading the top court to issue directions to the respondents to produce the lawmaker before this court and to ensure all legal proceedings strictly in accordance with the law and procedure.
On June 29, several TV channels highlighted a video clip of MNA Dasti wherein he was accusing police of brutality during his custody and claiming that no food had been served to him from last six-days.
In a video broadcast, the MNA with tears rolling down cheeks pleaded for help through the grilled windows of a prison vehicle.
Agitated Dasti claimed that he had been severely beaten by police and that rats and scorpions were often released into his jail cell as a means of torturing him.
“That the confined Member, National Assembly, Pakistan is the only elected MNA who won elections on the basis of poor of his vicinity. He was poor laborer while appeared in the elections and because of his services for poor he became famous among them,” the petition stated.
“That apparently Article 4 of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973, is being violated, which needs consideration under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973,” the petition stated.
The petition stated that the clips of Dasti appeared on media had developed instant harassment in the mind of public at large as illegality claimed by the said MNA was very serious adding that the sad episode conveyed the message to general public that nobody was safe in the hands of officials during custody.
It also stated that the more serious situation was that the statement was recorded when the said MNA was leaving from Court to Jail, which also reflects failure of judicial system in Punjab.
Last week, Dasti had been arrested by police minutes before he was scheduled to be released from Multan Central Jail after Anti-Terrorism Court approved his bail application in a different case.
