LHC larger bench to take up plea regarding Model Town violence report

Larger bench sought to take up plea against Maryam Nawaz.

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Khwaja Imtiaz Ahmad formed a three-member bench on October 1 to take up a petition accusing the government of violating the Constitution by not making public the report of a judicial commission that had investigated the June 17 Model Town violence.

Petitioner Advocate Sheraz Zaka said the commission, headed by Justice Ali Baqir Najfi, had sent the report to the government on August 9. He said the government had not shared the findings with the public.

Luxury tax

Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza stayed last week the levy of a tax on large houses.

Petitioner Zain Shehzad said the government had imposed the tax last year by amending Section 8 of the Finance Act. He said the tax was later withdrawn but the government had now again imposed it.

He said the tax was unjust as the government was already charging the property tax and discriminatory because it had not been introduced in all areas.

Disqualification

On September 30, a civil miscellaneous application was moved in the LHC seeking the constitution of a larger bench to hear the petition requesting the court to disqualify Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

The petitioner had accused the prime minister and the minister of telling a lie when they told a joint session of the parliament that they had not asked the army to act as an arbitrator to resolve the political stand-off.

PM’s tours

On October 2, the LHC overruled the registrar’s office objection to a petition challenging foreign tours of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The petitioner had accused the prime minister of staying at expensive hotels during his tours abroad.

Barrister Javed Iqbal Jafree argued that the objection was not in public interest. He requested the court to overrule the objection.

Maryam Nawaz

On October 1, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah referred a petition challenging Maryam Nawaz’s appointment as chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Youth Loan Programme to the chief justice with a request to form a larger bench to take up the matter.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Zubair Niazi had moved the petition. He said the Supreme Court had observed that the appointments to important posts should be made in a transparent manner. He said Nawaz had been appointed to the office without publication of any advertisement inviting applications.

Contempt of court

The LHC issued notices to the PTI, the Pakistan Awami Tehreek and the attorney general of Pakistan on September 29 directing them to argue the maintainability of a petition seeking contempt of court proceedings against both the parties for violating its earlier order regarding sit-ins in Islamabad. A three-member bench, headed by Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan, heard the case.

The court also asked the attorney general to place on record the order passed by the Supreme Court, if any, in this regard. The judge adjourned the hearing until October 15.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2014.