LAHORE, Nov 8: A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday disposed of an appeal filed by the Punjab government challenging the bail granted to former Sialkot district police officer Waqar Chohan by the trial court in the Sialkot lynching case.

The bench also disposed of bail petitions filed by former Sialkot Sadar SHO Rana Ilyas and a constable, Nadir Husain, directing them to approach the trial court for the grant of bail.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif, observed that since challan against the accused had been filed and they had also been indicted, any order from the high court in bail petitions at this stage would affect the trial proceedings. The chief justice directed both the Punjab government and the accused to approach the trial court for redress of their grievances.

An Anti-Terrorism Court in Gujranwala had granted bail to Chohan against surety bonds worth Rs100,000 in the case of lynching of two brothers, Mughees Butt and Munib Butt.

The government, through advocate Eihtisham Qadir, said Chohan did not deserve bail as his role had been attributed as a supervisor in the FIR.

It said the former DPO deliberately allowed the angry mob to lynch the two brothers and also did not call ambulances to remove the bodies of the victims, but let the mob desecrate them. Chohan is among 10 or so policemen arrested in the case. MOONIS: The Lahore High Court chief justice on Monday sought a reply from the federal communication secretary on a petition filed by PML-Q MPA Moonis Elahi seeking a ban on a “Google Blogger” for showing alleged hatred material against him.

On Oct 13, the chief justice had dismissed a similar petition filed by a PML-Q worker, observing that the petition had no locus standi and Moonis should have approached the court himself if he had any grievance. Moonis, therefore, filed the petition through his counsel Javed Iqbal Raja.

The counsel submitted that his client was shocked to see on internet fabricated and baseless defamatory stories attributed to him.

He prayed that the authorities be directed to block the access of the said website in Pakistan and the owner of “Google Blogger” be directed to respect and honour international conventions granting fundamental rights to citizens. He also requested the court to direct the owners of the website to immediately remove the alleged hatred material against the petitioner.

The chief justice issued notice to the federal secretary and directed a deputy attorney-general to ensure submission of reply by Nov 15.