Contempt: Petition against chief election commissioner

LAHORE:

Lahore High Court on Tuesday issued a pre-admission notice on a petition seeking initiation of contempt of court proceedings against Chief Election Commissioner Justice (r) Sardar Raza Khan.

After hearing the initial arguments, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah directed a deputy attorney general to come up with a response on December 22 after obtaining instructions from the federal government. Earlier, Advocate Azhar Siddique argued that the CEC had rapped court verdicts on local government elections in a statement saying that the judiciary should not interfere in the election commission’s ambit. He said his remarks amounted to contempt of court.

The counsel asked the court to declare that the CEC, the ECP and its members were not courts as defined in Article-175 of the Constitution and were bound to observe the constitutional mandate as powers of judicial review remain vested with high courts to review set-aside or nullify any order. He said Khan’s statement constituted contempt in accordance with Article-204.

Petition against arrest of govt officials dismissed

Lahore High Court has dismissed a petition challenging the arrest of 102 government officials, patwaris and constables allegedly involved in occupying Faisalabad Industrial Estate land.

The court ordered all the accused officials to join the police investigation. Additional Prosecutor General Abdul Samad said the Faisalabad Land Acquisition Collector had embezzled public money by selling trees and state property in connivance with patwaris and Forest Department officials.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th,  2015.