LHC summons secretary over ransom note
Lahore High Court issues show cause notice to special secretary after he suggests paying ransom was a crime.
LAHORE:
Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif of the Lahore High Court has issued a show cause notice to the special secretary of the Home Department after he suggested that paying ransom was a crime.
Justice Sharif said the secretary had filed an “illogical reply” to a court query about the possibility of the state reimbursing a man for the ransom he paid for his son’s release from kidnappers.
“It is a fact that it is the state’s responsibility to prevent and detect crime,” said the secretary in his reply. “However, it is not an absolute responsibility but a qualified responsibility. Paying ransom for recovery of abductees is in itself an unlawful act and cannot be rewarded.”
Justice Sharif was angered at the response. “This means that if a person’s relative is abducted and the kidnappers ask for ransom, he should not pay and let his relative be murdered,” he said.
He issued a notice to the special secretary for September 16 asking why action should not be taken against him and directed the court office to prepare a separate file in this regard.
The court adjourned the hearing of the main suo motu case till October 6 as a police officer sought more time for the arrest of the kidnappers.
The chief justice had initiated suo motu proceedings in the case after Dr Alamdar Hussain wrote to the court saying his son Athar, 11, had been kidnapped on May 9, 2010, and released after payment of Rs4 million as ransom.
He said Rawalpindi police had not helped him recover his son and had failed to nab the culprits. He pointed out that the Sindh High Court had ordered the Sindh government to pay ransom for the release of two kidnapped judicial officers. The families of the abducted judges had paid Rs4 million for their release.
Justice Sharif had directed the Punjab Home Department to comment on the possibility of the doctor being reimbursed, as under Article 25 of the Constitution all citizens have equal rights and must be treated without discrimination.
LHC summons net authorities over blasphemous content:
Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif of the Lahore High Court has summoned the chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, chairman of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority and secretary of information technology for September 16 to answer questions about blasphemous material on the internet.
The chief justice, taking suo motu notice, also ordered the deputy attorney general and advocate general to ensure compliance with the summons and attend the hearing on September 16 to assist the court. Justice Sharif said there was a lot of material online which was objectionable and derogatory to Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and Islam. Earlier, he had taken suo motu notice of an objectionable picture in a school textbook.
A man named Malik Amjad from Gujjar Khan had in an application told the court that kids at the Fauji Foundation School in Rawalpindi were reading a textbook which contained a picture of a teddy bear wearing a shirt with the name Muhammad printed on it. The suo motu notice was disposed of after Kamran Adil, the SP for Potohar Division, Rawalpindi told the court that a blasphemy case had already been registered, under Section 295 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The chief justice said it had been brought to his attention that that the picture of the teddy bear was downloaded from an international website and it was still online. “It is a very serious matter,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2010.
Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif of the Lahore High Court has issued a show cause notice to the special secretary of the Home Department after he suggested that paying ransom was a crime.
Justice Sharif said the secretary had filed an “illogical reply” to a court query about the possibility of the state reimbursing a man for the ransom he paid for his son’s release from kidnappers.
“It is a fact that it is the state’s responsibility to prevent and detect crime,” said the secretary in his reply. “However, it is not an absolute responsibility but a qualified responsibility. Paying ransom for recovery of abductees is in itself an unlawful act and cannot be rewarded.”
Justice Sharif was angered at the response. “This means that if a person’s relative is abducted and the kidnappers ask for ransom, he should not pay and let his relative be murdered,” he said.
He issued a notice to the special secretary for September 16 asking why action should not be taken against him and directed the court office to prepare a separate file in this regard.
The court adjourned the hearing of the main suo motu case till October 6 as a police officer sought more time for the arrest of the kidnappers.
The chief justice had initiated suo motu proceedings in the case after Dr Alamdar Hussain wrote to the court saying his son Athar, 11, had been kidnapped on May 9, 2010, and released after payment of Rs4 million as ransom.
He said Rawalpindi police had not helped him recover his son and had failed to nab the culprits. He pointed out that the Sindh High Court had ordered the Sindh government to pay ransom for the release of two kidnapped judicial officers. The families of the abducted judges had paid Rs4 million for their release.
Justice Sharif had directed the Punjab Home Department to comment on the possibility of the doctor being reimbursed, as under Article 25 of the Constitution all citizens have equal rights and must be treated without discrimination.
LHC summons net authorities over blasphemous content:
Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif of the Lahore High Court has summoned the chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, chairman of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority and secretary of information technology for September 16 to answer questions about blasphemous material on the internet.
The chief justice, taking suo motu notice, also ordered the deputy attorney general and advocate general to ensure compliance with the summons and attend the hearing on September 16 to assist the court. Justice Sharif said there was a lot of material online which was objectionable and derogatory to Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and Islam. Earlier, he had taken suo motu notice of an objectionable picture in a school textbook.
A man named Malik Amjad from Gujjar Khan had in an application told the court that kids at the Fauji Foundation School in Rawalpindi were reading a textbook which contained a picture of a teddy bear wearing a shirt with the name Muhammad printed on it. The suo motu notice was disposed of after Kamran Adil, the SP for Potohar Division, Rawalpindi told the court that a blasphemy case had already been registered, under Section 295 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The chief justice said it had been brought to his attention that that the picture of the teddy bear was downloaded from an international website and it was still online. “It is a very serious matter,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2010.