Judge recuses himself from May 9 case

A member of a Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench on Wednesday recused himself from hearing petitions challenging the jail trial of the Jinnah House attack case.

The petitions were fixed before the division bench comprising Justice Asjad Javaid Ghural and Justice Ali Zia Bajwa. However, Justice Ali Zia Bajwa recused himself from hearing the petitions due to personal reasons and observed that he had already refused to hear cases related to the May 9 violence.

Later, the bench referred the petitions to the LHC acting chief justice with a request to fix the matter before another bench.

Former Punjab governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema and Senator Ijaz Chaudhry had challenged the jail trial of the Jinnah House attack case and requested the court to set aside the notification issued for the purpose.