LAHORE, Oct 6: PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif on Monday filed his twice-rejected petition afresh in the Lahore High Court, pleading the court office to mark it for regular hearing after reviewing its earlier objection.

The office had refused to mark the petition twice through which he had challenged the orders of the anti-terrorism court declaring him a proclaimed offender in a case accusing him and six police officials of having murdered five youths in a staged police encounter during April 1998.

Since the petitioner had been declared a proclaimed offender and the proceedings for procuring his attendance were still pending with the trial court, he could not challenge these orders in the LHC without surrendering to the trial court. The office had given this reason while rejecting the petition on both the occasions.

While filing the petition for the third consecutive time, petitioner’s counsel Manzoor Ahmad Malik and Sattar Sahil maintained that their client had not absconded and had given the reasons for his non-appearance to the trial court.

“The office does not have the authority to decide this point which is the exclusive jurisdiction of the court.”

The counsel further submitted in the fresh petition that the objection raised by the office had amounted to the final decision of the petition by the office which was not permissible under the prevalent rules. They argued that no proceedings for the procurement of Shahbaz Sharif’s attendance were pending with the trial court as he had already been declared a proclaimed offender following the completion of proclamation process.

“If despite all these arguments, the office is still of the view that its objection is valid and maintainable under the rules, the petition should be marked as an objection case to the court to provide an opportunity to the petitioner to contest this objection in the court,” the counsel prayed.

As claimed by the counsel, the office had not yet given any response to the latest petition.