Non maintainable: Plea against Rafique’s 2014 remarks dismissed

‘Assembly proceedings cannot be assailed in court’.

LAHORE: Lahore High Court on Tuesday dismissed as non maintainable a petition seeking deletion of Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq’s remarks from the record of proceedings of a joint session of Parliament held on September 10, 2014.

Earlier, a deputy attorney general submitted that the proceedings of the Assembly could not be assailed in the court. Petitioner Iqbal Toor, a Sheikhupura resident, had submitted that the speech had led to controversy about Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He had requested the court to declare the speech in violation of Article 19 of the Constitution.

His counsel Barrister Maqsooma Bokhari said that while referring to the remarks of an Opposition leader Rafique had said that the culture of keeping pet dogs was condemnable. She said the minister had implied that those who followed such a culture were neither Pakistanis nor ‘respectable’ people, and should not be allowed to sit in the parliament.

The counsel argued that the practice condemned by Rafique had been followed by the Quaid-i-Azam. She said it was well known that he had kept pet dogs.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2016.