Law: West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960

Section: 8

Law: Constitution of Pakistan, 1962

Section: 6

(a) West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (XXXI of 1960)----   ---- S. 8, Explanation-"Public meeting" Definition.   A meeting would be public meeting only if it is "open to the public or to any class or portion of the public" and these words are the key to the definition.   It was stressed that a meeting of any portion or class of the public would constitute a public meeting, so that whenever a group of persons assemble together, they will constitute a public meeting irrespective of the purpose for which they have gathered together and the nature of the invitation extended to them. It was further contended that each individual citizen is undoubt edly a member of the public when they assemble together they cannot divorce themselves of their character as the members of the public and any meeting by them would be a "public meeting" covered by the mischief of section 8 of the West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960: Held, that this interpretation, it pressed to its logical conclu sions, would lead to startling results; a meeting between a husband and wife or the members of a family in the privacy of their home, and of the students studying in their class-room, would constitute a public meeting and the distinction between a private meeting and public meeting would vanish altogether.   A public meeting is, therefore, a meeting to which the public or any class or portion of the public as such is invited or admitted, no matter whether the admission thereto is general or restricted. The members of the public are permitted to attend the meeting which is accessible to them in their capacity end character as the members of the public and the admission is open to them as such.   Trafalgor Square case of 1887; Ex parte : Lewis (1888) 21 Q B D 191; Dictionary of English Law by Karl Jowitth; Wharton's Law Lexicon and Oxford New English Dictionary ref.   A meeting held in the secrecy of a private place not open to public view may as well be considered to be a public meeting. Also a public meeting will not cease to be so merely because admission thereto is restricted by ticket or…