PNP scoffs at Government's decision to appeal SOE ruling

 

The People's National Party (PNP) has characterised the Government's decision to appeal Friday's court ruling that the repeated and extended use of states of public emergency is unconstitutional as ill-advised.

 

"I think that's a knee-jerk response from the Government," PNP General Secretary Dr. Dayton Campbell said when asked for his perspective on Radio Jamaica's Beyond the Headlines. 

 

The court challenge was filed in Dr Campbell's name, in his capacity as the opposition party's General Secretary.

 

Elaborating, he said the Government was "aware that the points that were made by us and agreed by the court, that is the correct position, and I think it's going to waste the public's time and resources in them appealing this matter because I don't foresee that the outcome would be different."

 

Attorney-at-law John Clarke, Chairman of the human rights lobby, Jamaicans for Justice, also expressed disappointment at the Government's decision to appeal the court ruling, arguing that "the judgment itself is largely consistent with basic constitutional principles."

 

He said it was difficult to discern what grounds of appeal the Government will find in the judgment, "because the findings of the court are not surprising..."