LHC issues notices to Tareen, federal govt

Petitioner asks court to restrain PM from allowing PTI leader to hold any more meetings

LAHORE:  

The Lahore High Court on Friday issued notices to the government and Jahangir Tareen – the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) former secretary general – for allegedly chairing an official meeting of government officials despite being disqualified for life by the apex court.

The LHC judge Abid Aziz Sheikh issued these notices on a petition of Advocate Shoaib Saleem, who contended that Tareen was disqualified by the Supreme Court after being proved not ‘Sadiq’ and ‘Ameen’ under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution and Section 99 of Representation of People Act.

However, he said, it is an open secret that Tareen has been involved in lobbying for the formation of the PTI governments at both federal and provincial levels. Tareen also participated in various meetings held in the prime minister’s secretariat illegally and unlawfully.

“A disqualified person has no such legal and constitutional mandate even to have sitting in such meetings for being dishonest as declared by the Supreme Court,” the petitioner said.

 

Petition filed against Tareen's chairing a meeting

The lawyer said Tareen even convened and chaired a meeting titled “Livestock Emergency Working Group – 100 Days Agenda” on Sept 13 without any legal mandate.

“The meeting was attended by government officers, which is tantamount to making mockery of the decisions of higher courts and ridiculing the process of law,” he said.

The petitioner argued that the media widely reported that a disqualified person held a key meeting of top government officials at the secretariat of the prime minister which created many questions in the minds of public regarding sanctity of court orders.

He asked the court to summon Tareen and seek an explanation as to under which authority of law he convened and chaired an official meeting. He asked the court to restrain the federal government from allowing him to hold any more meetings.

“Direction may very kindly be issued to respondent No 1 to permanently restrain the prime minister from allowing Mr Tareen to participate in any official meeting in any manner and capacity whatsoever,” he added.