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The Lahore High Court today struck down Section 124A of the Pakistan Penal Code, which was the country’s “sedition law,” since it was incompatible within the country’s constitution. Judge Shahid Karim of the High Court nullified the Sedition Statute.

FACTS OF THE CASE : 

The Lahore High Court was addressing a number of petitions that were required to be struck down. Section 124A of the Pakistan Penal Code was analysed on the grounds that it was being used by governments in power against their competitors. 

In 2019, General Pervez Musharraf was convicted of high treason for undermining the Constitution in 2007 by Judge Karim, who also gave General Musharraf’s death sentence. 

The sedition law in Pakistan was challenged on the grounds that while the country’s constitution guarantees everyone the right to freedom of expression, the law, it also punishes remarks critical of the government with fines and/or life imprisonment.

A person petitioned the court to declare Section 124-A of the PPC to be “ultra-vires in terms of Article 8 of the Constitution being inconsistent with and in derogation of fundamental rights afforded under Article 9, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 19, 19A of the Constitution.”

JUDGEMENT : 

The Supreme Court had directed the Center and the State governments to refrain from filing any FIRs under the aforementioned provision while it was being re-considered in an interim order.

A bench made up of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant, and Justice Hima Kohli decided to put a hold on all ongoing trials, appeals, and other actions involving accusations brought under Section 124 A.

A comparable petition brought by the Pakistani political group Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was dismissed by the Islamabad High Court as “non-maintainable” last year.

JUDGEMENT REVIEW BY SREYA MARY