After President Arif Alvi’s remarks on Sunday denying his signature on the Official Secrets and Army Acts, an individual has filed a separate plea in the Lahore High Court to halt the execution of the Official Secrets (Amendment) Act 2023.
LHC declare Official Secrets Act null: Advocate Muhammad Muqsit Saleem submitted the application, which adds the federal government and the interior ministry as parties to the petition along with other parties.
The petitioner is of the opinion that President Arif Alvi did not sign the Official Secrets Act, notwithstanding what he claimed to have done.
The statement further mentioned that the Act had not undergone the proper procedure for passage.
The petition made a request for the court to declare the law suspended while it considered its options.
Further asserting that the Official Secrets (Amendment) Act was unconstitutional, the petitioner asked the court to declare sections 2, 4, and 11 of the Act invalid and null and void.
The petitioners urged the court to instruct the suspension of the law’s implementation until the case’s resolution.
Qureshi appeared in a certain court
Meanwhile, authorities established a special court in compliance with the Official Secrets (Amendment) Act, and they assigned additional responsibilities to the judge of the accountability court for its operation.
Judge Abul Hasnat Zulqernain will preside over the cases brought under the Official Secrets Act.
The modified statute in Islamabad has only resulted in the formation of one court thus far. Official Secrets Act proceedings must follow the law and must be heard behind closed doors.
The court has presented Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the arrested PTI leader, to provide testimony in a cypher case filed against him under the Official Secrets Act.
A closed-door hearing is taking place.
The FIA attorney asked the court to place Qureshi on physical remand. They took the stance that the remand should result in the recovery of documents related to the cypher.
On Sunday, President Arif Alvi wrote on X (previously Twitter) that he had “disagreed” with the two bills and had not signed them. He said that in order to render the bills useless, he had instructed his staff to return them unsigned within the allotted period.
He asserted that his staff weakened his authority by failing to return the bills, which led to their automatic passage into law.
“As Allah is all-knowing, He will pardon IA. However, I humbly beg for pardon from all who will be impacted,” he said.