September 10, 2003	Wednesday	Rajab 12, 1424

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LAHORE, Sept 9: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday questioned the integrity of the seconder to a recall motion tabled against Data Ganj Bakhsh Town Nazim Khwaja Ahmad Hassaan and expressed surprise as to why did he back out from his support to the motion after having seconded it.

Justice Raja Muhammad Sabir raised this question after the minutes of the house meeting in which the recall motion had been adopted against Mr Hassaan last month were read out in the court.

“What conscience does this person has, who on the one hand, seconds the motion and disowns it in the full house meeting on the other hand saying that he was forced to second the motion,” the judge remarked during the hearing of the petition challenging the recall motion.

The petitioner also filed an amended petition challenging the notification of the Punjab Local Election Authority (PLEA) through which he had been debarred from using his powers and the PLEA had fixed Sept 23 for voting on the recall motion. Punjab Advocate General Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi was issued notice on this petition for Sept 15.

Petitioner’s counsel Umar Ata Bandiyal objected to the court’s orders to give one-week notice to the AG arguing that his client didn’t have that much time to indulge in the litigation for long since the voting on the recall motion was just two weeks away and there was a likelihood that the petition would become infructuous if not decided in the meantime.

He pleaded the court to grant a shorter adjournment or even dismiss the amended petition in limine so that the petitioner could accept this decision as his final fate on the judicial side and take alternative measures.

The court, however, allowed the petitioner’s counsel to conclude his arguments on the previously filed petition through which the recall motion had been challenged. Further hearing on the petition will resume on Wednesday.

The counsel read out the relevant portion of the minutes of the meeting in which the motion was adopted. “The house Speaker’s repeated requests to his members to turn their cell phones off during the conduct of the meeting is on record. These calls were being made to them from outside the house to support the

recall motion while certain members were also taken to Murree in this regard just one day ahead of the meeting,” he argued.

As the court was about to rise, the counsel prayed that the operation of the PLEA’s notification should be suspended till Sept 15 so as to provide an interim relief to the petitioner. The AG submitted that the PLEA was a statutory body and its action could not be suspended by the court without hearing him.

The court agreed to this argument and disallowed Mr Bandiyal’s plea for the third consecutive time.

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