Three federal ministers, all ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) loyalists, challenged a sessions court order in the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday. The ministers contested an order directing the police to lodge an FIR against the petitioners over the Model Town incident in light of an application filed by Minhajul Quran International.
Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali filed the petition.
The petition called upon the high court to set aside the August 16 sessions court order. According to the order, the SHO of Faisal Town was directed to register an FIR against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for their alleged involvement in the Model Town incident. The judge took up the petition and adjourned it for Monday (August 25).
According to the counsel’s argument, from the very outset the PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri refused to participate in the investigations. He said they were invited to be a part of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) but repeatedly expressed doubts over the inquiry.
Advocate Tarar said the August 16 order was illegal. He added that the judge had failed to take into account that the version of the respondent given in the petition had already taken up by the JIT during investigation of FIR registered by the police. He pointed out that five policemen were also arrested during the course of investigation and there was no justification to register a second FIR.
The counsel alleged that the plea filed by Minhajul Quran was politically motivated and the order passed on it by the judge was in violation of Article 4 of the Constitution. He said the judge had acted beyond his jurisdiction in passing the order and interfering in their scope of duty. The counsel said that after amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, the sessions court no longer had the power to order the registration of an FIR.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 23rd, 2014.
COMMENTS (2)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
What happened to "I will resign instantly" that is why we have a gridlock IK does not trust the sharifs, can you blame him..
I dont think the number of petitioners should have any weight in the proceedings. This is about the law. Even if everyone disagrees the law should be the only thing that matters.