Four months of hearing but no verdict

LAHORE:

Ghazala Khan, a Christian woman accused of abetment in a blasphemy case registered in Rawalpindi, sought permission and was granted permission by the Lahore High Court chief justice to file her bail application at LHC principal seat instead of the Rawalpindi Bench, after the Rawalpindi District Bar Association resolved that none of its members would represent any of the suspects in the case before any court. Some lawyers also beat up the clerk of the lawyer representing her. 

On November 19, 2012, Khan filed her bail application and was granted an interim bail. Her petition for bail before arrest has been argued for and against.

The court has heard her counsel, the complainant’s counsel, a leader of a religious party, as well as the Punjab advocate general on the subject.

After hearing the pleas for more than four months, the high court judge concerned on April 8 asked the complainant if he could forgiver her.

When the complainant replied in the negative, the judge refused to pass an order and instead referred it to the chief justice for fixing it before some other bench.

Meera

Film actress Meera’s speech at the LHC Bar Association hall during a ceremony organised by the Pakistan Justice Party on April 11 was a great hit. An unexpectedly large number of lawyers in their seats till her speech [the last] ended.

Earlier she arrived to a warm welcome by the party president Munsif Awan when she reached the LHC gate with her mother, a candidate for the party from PP-283 (Haroonabad).

SBP deputy governor

Muhammad Ashraf Wartha, the State Bank of Pakistan deputy governor, was allowed last week to continue in his post after an LHC bench granted a stay order in the case.

The order came after the Election Commission of Pakistan said that it had no objection to Wartha’s appointment. The ECP noted that the appointment was not political and was not likely to influence the election.

Election appeals

Last date for filing objections to appeals against scrutiny of nominations lapsed last week.

More than 1,000 appeals are pending before LHC election tribunals. No major cases have so far been decided so far so that coming week is critical in this regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2013.