LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday asked a petitioner to come up with arguments on the maintainability of his petition demanding it to punish Prime Minister Imran Khan for his alleged anti-judiciary rant.

Advocate Farhat Manzoor Chandio filed the petition saying the prime minister in a recent television programme, responding to telephone calls of the citizens, accused judges of the superior courts of favouring former prime minister Nawaz Sharif by allowing him to travel abroad without indemnity bonds.

The lawyer argued that the prime minister also tried to blame the courts for the poor performance of the NAB. He said the prime minister committed a violation of the Constitution which prohibits contemptuous remarks against the judiciary.

He asked the court to initiate proceedings against the prime minister under the contempt of court law.

After hearing initial arguments, Justice Ali Baqar Najafi asked the lawyer to first establish the maintainability of the petition under article 199 of the Constitution. The judge would resume hearing on April 9.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2021