IHC snubs contempt plea against PDM leaders
The Islamabad High Court on Friday set aside a contempt of court application against multi-party alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leaders Maryam Nawaz, Rana Sanaullah and Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
The court heard the plea and dismissed it as inadmissible.
The IHC upheld the objection of its registrar’s office that the court was not the relevant forum for it and asked the petitioner’s lawyer Ali Ijaz Buttar what the application was about.
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The lawyer responded that various anti-judiciary statements were made by these leaders on social media.
Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani inquired if there was any statement related to the IHC.
Following this, the judge directed the petitioner’s lawyer to take the case to the Supreme Court and Lahore High Court as the counsel claimed they were mentioned in the alleged malicious statements.
“If the petitioner is from Lahore, why is he not filing the case there? Lahore has courts too,” Justice Kayani remarked.
Subsequently, the court dismissed the contempt of court petition as inadmissible.
On Tuesday, PTI-led government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had decided to book PDM leaders for their “hateful and seditious statements” against the state institutions.
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An application seeking an FIR, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, was filed at the Sharqi police station under Section 196 (prosecution for offences against the state) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups), 108-A (abetment in Pakistan of offences outside it) and 505 (statements conducive to public mischief) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The application had nominated PML-N leaders Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Rana Sanaullah, Ata Tarar, Ayaz Sadiq, Pervaiz Rashid and JUI-F head Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
The complainant, a lawyer by profession, had claimed that hateful remarks against the country had been passed by the PDM leaders in the past in an attempt to damage the institutions and sovereignty.
He had alleged that the "provocative" statements against the judiciary and military had since been widely circulated on social media and were viewed by a large number of people across the globe.
Like all other “patriots”, he had added that he was deeply hurt by the statements which, according to him, were passed at the behest of an enemy country.