' MUHAMMAD ANWAR KHAN KASI, J.--- Heard and record perused.
2. The brief facts for disposal of this petition are that the petitioner, being citizen of Pakistan, had applied for the grant of Machine Readable Passport for the performance of Hajj. The respondent vide letter No,36969/BI/09-RPO(IBD), dated 15-7-2009 refused the issuance of said Passport on the ground that his name is included in Black List since the year 2003 vide Reference No,4822.
3. The petitioner submitted applications to the concerned department, which remained unresponded and, therefore, he invoked the jurisdiction of this Court. It is argued that he had already been in possession of Machine Readable Passport No,AA4196611 which expired on 10-1:2010.
4. The respondents were given notices for filing their parawise comments but in spite of several opportunities, they failed to submit the same.
5. Today, again the learned Standing Counsel could not bring anything on record to justify the actions regarding refusal of issuance of Passport to the petitioner.
6. Article 4 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan is very much clear on the point that it is inalienable right of every citizen to be treated in accordance with law and to enjoy the protection of law. Particularly no action detrimental to the life, liberty, body, reputation or property of any person shall be taken except in accordance with law.
7. Again Article 14 of the Constitution states that dignity of man shall be inviolable and under Article 25, all citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law.
8. In the present case, respondents have not shown any justifiable reason for refusal of issuance of Passport to the petitioner. There is no material on record to declare him as Black-Listed. He is already in possession of a valid CNIC and had been holding a Pakistan Passport No,AA4196611 which expired on 10-1-2010.
9. Suffice it to say that every citizen of Pakistan has a legal right to get Passport subject to fulfilling legal requirements and instead there are solid, justifiable reasons, no citizen can be deprived of his fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the Courts are under obligation to uphold the guarantees provided by the Constitution.
10. The petition is, therefore, accepted and respondents are directed to issue Passport to the petitioner. Parties are left to bear their own costs.