Court Diaries: Seeking an end to VIP culture

Petitioner says VIP culture had done great damage to Pakistan and had polarised society.

LAHORE:

A full bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) issued notices to the federal and the provincial government on Friday (November 21) regarding a petition seeking an end to VIP culture in the country.

Jamaatud Dawa amir Hafiz Saeed had filed the petition. He said the VIP culture had done great damage to Pakistan and had polarised society. Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan directed the federal and the provincial government to submit replies in a week following the conclusion of arguments.

Treason case

Justice Shahzada Mazhar Khan of the LHC requested the chief justice to fix a petition seeking the registration of a high-treason case against Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rasheed and to stop leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek from making anti-state statements at rallies and sit-ins before a full bench.



Imtiaz Goraya, the petitioner, said a full bench headed by Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan was hearing a similar petition so his petition should be heard by a full bench as well. Judge Khan accepted his request and requested the chief justice to fix the petition before a full bench.

NA 122

Justice Ijazul Ahsan of the LHC dismissed a petition filed by National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq against an election tribunal probing allegations of rigging in NA-122.

Judge Ahsan said the petition was not maintainable as the courts were not authorised to interfere in the proceedings. He also recalled a stay order granted earlier. The petitioner said PTI chief Imran Khan had not annexed the required documents with his petition.

Gullu Butt

Shahid Nazeer alias Gullu Butt filed a petition seeking the suspension of his sentence and release on bail at the LHC.

Butt said the trial court had been unable to appreciate the facts of the case as no one had complained against him. He said those whose cars had been damaged outside the Minhajul Quran Secretariat during the June 17 Model Town violence had not recorded statements against him.  Butt has also appealed his conviction.

He says his sentence should be suspended and he should be released on bail till a verdict regarding his appeal had been handed down.

PTI arrests

Justice Mahmood Maqbool Bajwa of the LHC directed the petitioner’s counsel to argue regarding the maintainability of a petition filed against the arrest of PTI activists.

The judge also directed officials of the federal and the provincial governments to get instructions in this regard. Advocate Gohar Nawaz Sindhu, the petitioner, said the government had started detaining PTI activists ahead of the party’s November 30 rally in Islamabad. Judge Bajwa directed the counsel’s petitioner to argue regarding the maintainability of the petition at the next hearing. He adjourned the hearing till November 24.

YouTube

A division bench of the LHC summoned a senior official of the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) on November 19 to answer several queries regarding petitions challenging the ban on YouTube.

Several petitions had been filed in this regard. The petitioners requested the court to lift the ban that had been imposed by the federal government after a controversial film was uploaded on the site. They said the ban violated fundamental rights regarding reading and knowledge. The government had replied that the decision had been taken following a directive from the Supreme Court.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2014.