MULTAN: The district and sessions judge on Monday accepted an acquittal petition of former MNA Dewan Ashiq Hussain Bokhari in a case of possessing a fake degree.

The case against Mr Bokhari was filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan. He had been elected as an MNA in 2013 from NA-153 (now NA-159) Jalalpur Pirwala and an election petition was filed against him for possessing a fake degree. On Sept 23, 2014, he was declared ineligible by the election tribunal.

Mr Bokhari had moved the Supreme Court against his ineligibility; however his petition was dismissed. Later, he had filed a petition in the district and sessions court for acquittal of charges against him that judge Sohail Ikram accepted.

PETITION TRANSFER: The Lahore High Court Multan bench on Monday transferred a contempt of court petition of three convicts to the Rawalpindi bench.

Mahmood Ahmed, Ghulam Qasim and Azizur Rehman, who are imprisoned in the high security Sahiwal jail, stated in their petition that a number of lives had been lost in a sectarian clash in Attock in 2000. They had been convicted by an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi and were awarded death sentences against which they had moved the Rawalpindi bench of the high court that upheld the punishment.

They then moved the Supreme Court against the verdict, which converted their punishment into life imprisonment and also declared them entitled to all facilities as per jail manual. But, they stated, the jail officials did not give them any concession in their sentence over good behaviour, national festivals and education and also kept them imprisoned in the high security jail in Sahiwal.

They added that they had moved the LHC Rawalpindi bench against this discrimination and the court declared them entitled to all the facilities; however even after passage of two years since their sentence had completed they were still in jail in violation of the court orders.

The convicts had filed a contempt petition in the LHC Rawalpindi bench, but the court dismissed it stating that Sahiwal jail did not fall in its jurisdiction. The Multan bench directed to shift the petition to the Rawalpindi bench that it stated was the competent forum to hear the contempt petition.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2019