LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday sought personal appearance of the Punjab chief secretary and the inspector general of police on petitions by different individuals challenging inclusion of their names in the list of top-ten goons prepared by the police.

Earlier, an official told the court that the police department had not released the list or issued to the media.

At this, Justice Aali Neelum directed a law officer to make the chief secretary and the inspector general of police appear in the court on Jan 13 to explain the position.

Khwaja Aqeel Ahmad alias Gogi Butt, Mansha Bamm, Ameer Balaj, the son of late Tipu Truckawalan, and others filed the petitions.

The petitioners claimed that they had not been involved in any illegal activity or facing any legal proceedings.

In his petition, Bamm said he was a worker of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and a law abiding citizen. He said he had never been involved in any illegal act.

Balaj said there were two cases against him and he had been granted bail in them by relevant courts of law.

The petitioners argued that the police included their names in the list of top-ten goons with a malafide intention and beyond any lawful reason.

They asked the court to order the police to remove their names from the list and also restrain it from causing any harassment to them.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2020