Kasur protest: Decision reserved on anti-judiciary rally

LAHORE: A full bench headed by Justice Syed Mazhar Ali Akbar Naqvi on Monday reserved its decision on contempt proceedings against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders, former MNA Waseem Akhtar, ex-MPA Naeem Safdar and others for allegedly taking out anti-judiciary rally and giving remarks against judges.

The full bench is likely to announce the verdict on June 29.

Kasur District Bar Association President Mirza Naseem in his petition alleged that the protest in Kasur was a planned conspiracy against the judiciary.
Moreover, the rally was led by PML-N leaders Waseem Akhtar and Naeem Safdar while some local leaders of the unions also accompanied them, the petition says.
The bar leader had contended that by doing so, the protestors committed contempt of court and therefore they must be punished.
Naseem pleaded to the court to declare the parliamentarians disqualified and proceed against them in accordance with the law.

The counsel for the accused Advocate Rai Bashir countered that allegations levelled on local leaders and parliamentarians have nothing to do with reality.
He submitted that the accused persons did take part in the rally but did not deliver any sort of anti-judiciary speech.



In response the bench asked the lawyer “do you believe in the polygraph test of rally’s video where it has resulted correct”, the counsel affirmed this but asked why only six persons had been nominated in the FIR despite the fact that “there were more than 100 participants in the rally”.

The counsel for the petitioner said that the accused persons not only chanted slogans against Pakistan Army and judiciary but also used derogatory language against them.
He further contended the country’s top judge was made target in the rally against whom the derogatory language was used. He prayed to the court to take action against the accused.

In previous proceedings Akhtar, Safdar and other four accused persons appeared before the bench and submitted written apology before the court.
However, the bench pointed out several mistakes in the written apology, with directives to them to remove all errors from their written apology and submit again.

Kasur police registered a case against over 80 persons out of which six were identified as members of the ruling party PML-N. The police booked them under sections 166, 506, 341, 228 109, 147 and 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code.