Court Diaries: Inquiry sought into alleged police violence against blind protesters

Petitioner asks LHC to direct govts to ensure 2 per cent quota for disabled.

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) heard a petition last week, seeking an inquiry into the manhandling of visually-impaired persons by police.

On December 4, the petitioner told the court that police had baton-charged members of the Pakistan Association of Blind. “It is not only a cognizable offence, but also a violation of several articles of the Constitution,” the petitioner had said.



He requested the LHC to direct the federal and Punjab governments to ensure the implementation of the 2 per cent quota for disabled persons in all appointments.

Joseph Colony case

The LHC deferred till December 9 the hearing of petitions filed against non-payment of compensation among the victims of the Joseph Colony arson attacks.

Earlier, the court had sought a report from the federal government about the progress made so far in paying compensation to the affected families. The counsel for the federal government did not appear at the hearing.

Zaman Masih and others had the filed petitions, stating that 30 out of the 190 affected families had been waiting for Rs500,000 each, the compensation announced by the then president. He stated that the government had delayed the payment and was treating them discriminatory.

Cancellation of bail

A division bench of the LHC dismissed a Punjab government’s petition, seeking cancellation of bail earlier granted to workers of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT). They had been arrested after the Model Town incident.

The prosecutor argued that PAT workers had taken the law into their hands, opened fire at the policemen and attacked them. “The workers also snatched weapons from policemen. However, the trial court released them on bail,” he said. He requested the court to cancel their bails as they were involved in heinous offences.

The PAT workers’ counsel pleaded that police had become a complainant in the case and the workers had been implicated in false cases. The court had accepted their bail petitions because no specific role had been attributed to them in the riots.

After hearing the arguments, the bench, led by Justice Abdul Sami Khan, dismissed the government’s petition.

MPA’s petition dismissed

The LHC dismissed the petition of an MPA of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Nighat Intisar, against a fine imposed on her by an election tribunal.

The petitioner stated that she was elected to the Punjab Assembly in the by-elections held in PP-107, Hafizabad. She said that her opponent had challenged her victory before the election tribunal.

“At one hearing, I failed to appear before the tribunal due to unavoidable circumstances. The tribunal imposed a fine of Rs38,000 on me,” she said. The petitioner asked the court to set the fine aside.

Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah dismissed the petition and observed that the high court could not interfere in the matters of election tribunals.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2014.