Conflict of interest: Recovery pleas referred to CJ

LAHORE: Petitions seeking recovery of Youhanabad residents allegedly held by the police for their involvement in the lynching of two men during riots that had erupted following the suicide attacks were on Tuesday referred to the Lahore High Court chief justice. Justice Anwarul Haq had observed that he could not hear the petitions as he had offered his legal services as an advocate to one of the petitioners, Frances Joseph. He requested the chief justice to fix the hearing of the petitions before another judge.  The petitions had originally been fixed for hearing before Justice Mahmood Maqbool Bajwa. However, they were referred to Justice Haq owing to Justice Bajwa’s absence on Tuesday. Petitioners had submitted that the police had rounded up their relatives without producing any evidence against them. They had said the police were yet to produce the detained men before a court.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2015.