‘Friends of court not independent, unbiased’

Babar Awan files objection to lawyers nominated to assist court.


Our Correspondent February 29, 2012

LAHORE:


PPP leader Dr Babar Awan has filed an objection petition in the Lahore High Court challenging the nomination of three lawyers to assist the court in a case seeking Awan’s disqualification from the Senate elections.


Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the LHC on February 21 appointed Sulman Mansoor, AK Dogar, Khwaja Haris Ahmad and Salman Akram Raja as amici curiae, or ‘friends of the court’, to discuss the question of the maintainability of the petition against the former federal law minister.

Awan raised objections to the nomination of Mansoor, Dogar and Raja, submitting that they were not independent and unbiased. His counsel Ramzan Chaudhry said that Raja had represented Mohsin Leghari of the PML-Q in his appeal against the rejection of his Senate nomination papers. He said that Leghari had named Awan as a respondent in that petition.

Dogar, he said, had represented the Sharif family in several cases including the Ittefaq Foundries case. The Punjab government had appointed Mansoor legal advisor at a department, illustrating his affiliation with the government of the PML-N, the PPP’s historical main rivals.

The court will hear the application along with the main case on Thursday (today).

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1st, 2012.

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