12 May 2004	Wednesday	21 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, May 11: The Lahore High Court registrar office on Tuesday returned the writ petitions filed by PML-N president Mian Shahbaz Sharif and his wife Nusrat Shahbaz, raising as many as four objections to their maintainability.

Stalling Shahbaz Sharif's attempt at seeking an injunction from the superior judiciary against family's deportation, the major objection raised by the office was that Shahbaz Sharif was an absconder and a fugitive from the law and could not be allowed to approach the superior court till he surrendered to the court where he was standing trial before absconding.

Another objection was that the petitioners had not appended with their petitions certified copies of the Supreme Court judgment to which they referred in the petitions. The petitioners had cited apex court's judgment which said that Shahbaz Sharif could return to Pakistan as law did not prevent a Pakistani citizen from coming back to his or her country.

The third objection was that copies of the petitions had not been provided to the office of the attorney-general for preparation of defence. The fourth objection brought the power of attorney of Hamza Shahbaz in dispute.

Hamza had a general power of attorney on behalf of his father, mother Nusrat Shahbaz, Mian Nawaz Sharif and Begum Kulsoom Nawaz which he had been using to deal with judicial aspects of their tax, business and property matters.

The LHC registrar office said the power of attorney should have been attested at the place of execution. However, the office did not explain if the power of attorney was to be attested in London from where his father and mother sent the petitions to the Lahore High Court or Jeddah where other members of the family had been residing since their exile on Dec 10, 2000.

The same power of attorney was used by Hamza when his father filed writ petitions with the Supreme Court on his and his wife's behalf. No court ever objected to this power of attorney which Hamza had been using in matters related to tax for about three and a half years. Banks had also not questioned this document in family's business matters.

As for the objection that the former Punjab chief minister should first surrender to the court where he was standing trial to qualify for accessing courts in Pakistan, his counsel Barrister Mohammad Ahmad Qayyum said this was the ultimate objective of Mian Shahbaz Sharif and his family, which included his wife and two daughters.

According to the counsel, Shahbaz Sharif had expressedly stated in his petition that he wanted to return home and face all eventualities, which meant that he would certainly surrender to the court. He said all the objections were frivolous, but the one regarding surrender was ridiculous.

SUPREME COURT: Meanwhile, the objections raised by the Lahore High Court office were challenged in the Supreme Court in Islamabad. The apex court, however, could not take up the matter during working hours, according to reports reaching here from the federal capital.