Election 2013: Judge accused of partiality, recuses himself

Hamid Khan’s counsels accused him of being loyal to PML-N.

LAHORE:

Justice (r) Kazim Ali Malik, heading an election tribunal, on Thursday announced his resignation as counsels of Hamid Khan, member of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), said they did not trust his impartiality.

Khan has filed a petition against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Khawaja Saad Rafique who won the national assembly seat from Lahore (NA-125).

Advocate Latif Hanjra and Advocate Mian Hussain said they had no confidence in the judge. They said he supported Shahbaz Sharif and Khawaja Saad Rafique and had previously been appointed as anti-corruption director general because of his support for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Justice Malik said he had always discharged his duties responsibly and fairly.



He remarked that the counsels were deliberately politicising the case. He said their attitude was “unbearable” and refused to hear the case and referred it to the Election Commission for hearing by another tribunal.

While leaving the courtroom, a visibly upset Justice (r) Malik said he might resign from his job. A spokesman for the Election Commission later said no resignation had been received.

The petition by PTI’s Hamid Khan has alleged that Saad Rafique used workers of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) at polling stations and manipulated election results the help from returning officers.

Court asks for evidence against intelligence agency

The Lahore High Court chief justice on Thursday asked the wife of Major (r) Mujahid Azeem to produce evidence that her husband was in the custody of an intelligence agency. The CJ said that written replies of the agencies could not be ignored. He said the hearing could not proceed further without solid proof.

The CJ issued the order when the woman’s counsel told the court that the reply from the intelligence agencies was untrue.

Earlier, the Military Intelligence and the Intelligence Bureau submitted that the person was not in their custody. A deputy attorney general submitted that the petitioner had already approached the Commission on Missing Persons. He said her petition before the court should be dismissed.

The court fixed the next hearing for November 22. The petitioner, Naeema Tariq, has submitted that her husband Major (r) Mujahid Azeem Tariq has been missing for four months. She says her son, Ali Tariq, also went missing soon after she moved the court.

She said the police had failed to recover them. The petitioner requested the court to issue directions to police and other security agencies to recover the missing persons.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2013.