Contempt of court: FIRs sought against CM, law minister

LAHORE: An additional district and session judge on Wednesday fixed July 30 for arguments on a petition seeking registration of a criminal case against the chief minister and the law minster.

Petitioner Abdullah Malik said that he was president of a civil society network working for human rights.

“Pakistan is a poor country. The national debt is nearing Rs21 trillion. The Orange Line Metro Train project is a white elephant. It will only increase our debt instead of solving our problems,” the petitioner said.

He said that he and other civil society representatives had filed several cases in the Lahore High Court (LHC) to stop the project.

“The LHC had issued a stay order to save 11 cultural heritage sites that were likely to be affected by construction work. The respondents are in the habit of commenting on sub-judice matters.

They also threaten the petitioners with dire consequences in public speeches,” he said.

He requested the court to direct the SHO to register an FIR against the respondents.

At previous hearings, the judge had sought comments from Civil Lines station house officer. The SHO had stated that the application was not maintainable as the petitioner had not specified the time, date or place of occurrence of the alleged offence.

The SHO also said that the matter of contempt of court might be taken up in the Lahore High Court by the petitioner.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2016.