LHC's registrar raises objection over Bushra Bibi’s intra-court appeal

The Lahore High Court (LHC) Registrar Office on Thursday raised an objection to the intra-court appeal (ICA) filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, saying that the petition contains no signatures of the petitioner.

It is pertinent to note that the former prime minister’s wife had filed an ICA against the decision of LHC’s Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh who had dismissed her plea, with fine of Rs1,00,000 on April 20, wherein she had sought to "halt expected police action" at their Zaman Park residence during Eidul Fitr holidays.

The petitioner had filed the petition through advocates Azhar Siddique and Intizar Hussain Panjotha by making respondents the caretaker government through its chief secretary, interior ministry through its secretary Islamabad, Ministry of Interior through its secretary Lahore, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Director General FIA Islamabad and Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore.

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On April 20, as proceedings commenced, Justice Tariq addressing the petitioner’s lawyer advocate Azhar Siddique remarked that “it is an irrelevant petition as the larger bench had handed in a decision on such a petition. This court is imposing a fine of Rs.100,000 over filing this irrelevant petition".

To this, advocate Azhar Siddique argued that he filed this petition under different articles. He implored there was concrete information that an operation was to be launched at Zaman Park during Eid holidays.

Justice Sheikh then remarked that "filing such petitions is tantamount to overburdening the courts", adding that "how the court pass an order relying on the speculations".

Petition

The petitioner had contended in her petition that a 'brutal and illegal police operation' by use of force and arms and ammunition took place at the residence of the petitioner in Zaman Park, Lahore on March 18, 2023. Police, in sheer disregard for the privacy of female citizens including the petitioner among others, 'fiercely used force to enter the premises'. Police also indiscriminately used heavy tear gas and threw stones together with baton charge, injuring several people present there.

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The petition added that the police had damaged the petitioner’s personal property and had broken into the residence by dismantling the main entrance gate with a crane. Police, in cooperation with provincial administration, carried out the operation violating the TORs upon which they and the PTI agreed.

The operation was started when PTI chief Imran Khan left Lahore for Islamabad to attend his case proceedings.