Legal fraternity warns PTI against 'maligning' judiciary

The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) on Monday criticised former prime minister Imran Khan and Governor Punjab Umar Sarfraz Cheema for their alleged 'humiliating' remarks against the judiciary.

The LHCBA’s representatives addressed a press conference on the LHC premises and stated that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI) disparaging remarks were not warranted in the guise of filing ‘reference’ against the judiciary.

The LHCBA’s president Sardar Akbar Ali Dogar stated that if the PTI’s rhetoric remained unchanged, the legal community would call a lawyer’s convention across the province and file constitutional petitions at all forums. The legal fraternity added that they would restrain the party from developing a tendency to lambast sitting judges at public gatherings and rallies.

“We are with the judges and will not let PTI speak against them,” he warned.

In reference to the Punjab governor’s statement of filing reference against the LHC’s Justice Jawad Hassan, president Dogar stated that such a sentiment was tantamount to threatening a judge.

“These threats are being imposed to file a reference against an LHC judge who had ordered the speaker of the national assembly to administer the oath to the newly elected Chief Minister of Punjab Hamza Shehbaz Sharif”, the LHCBA president said.

President Dogar maintained that the PTI has the right to file an appeal against a decision, rather than inciting hate toward the judges.

Read LHC CJ forms larger bench over Hamza's oath-taking

He further lamented that the “courts are good if decisions come in favour of the PTI and the courts are good when Nawaz Sharif is sent home, but in the very next moment the courts are bad if decisions come against the PTI”.

Responding to the former premier’s inquisition as to “why the courts had been opened at night”, he added that the courts do not have fixed timings, reminding the former PM that the courts had also been open on Sundays during the former Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar’s era.

The bar strongly condemned the PTI's statements, as representatives were also present at the occasion.

Earlier today, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah sought a response from former prime minister Imran Khan over whether he had confidence over the courts or not.

The IHC CJ refused to conduct the hearing, stating that the advocate, Faisal Chaudhry, must first ask the party leadership whether they trusted the court.

“The narrative that the Supreme Court and the high courts are compromised is still being spread," Justice Minallah observed. "This court can work for 24 hours a day," he said, asking if the petitioner had any objection with the court that the court may look into.

CJ Minallah criticised the rhetoric of the ousted government, reminding that it was the same court that provided relief to the PTI at 11pm during the 2014 sit-in.

“If you have the slightest doubt that the high court and the Supreme Court were compromised, let me know,” the high court justice reiterated.