The Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench, headed by Chief Justice Aalia Neelum, has directed the court office to present all relevant judgments pertaining to scattered cases registered against PTI leader Shibli Faraz in connection with the May 9 riots, in order to assess the possibility of consolidating them.
The bench was hearing a petition filed by former federal minister Shibli Faraz, who sought the consolidation of 25 cases lodged against him in various districts across Punjab following the violent protests that erupted after the arrest of PTI founder Imran Khan.
Faraz argued that the multiple FIRs filed across the province made it humanly impossible for him to appear in each case, and requested the court to merge them for ease of legal proceedings. However, the bench turned down a plea by Faraz's counsel, Sardar Latif Khosa, to form a larger bench to hear the matter.
Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom, Khosa criticised the judiciary and claimed that the Anti-Terrorism Courts had relied on "fabricated witnesses" while handing down sentences to PTI leaders and supporters. He urged judges to "set their own house in order," warning that they would be held accountable both in this world and the hereafter.
Khosa said the country was experiencing unprecedented levels of repression and warned that history does not remember biased judges favourably.
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