LAHORE: The registrar office of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday returned a petition to a lawyer/petitioner who sought directions to the Ministry of Interior to initiate sedition proceedings against journalist Hamid Mir.

Putting an objection to the maintainability of the petition, the office said the petitioner needed to approach the first forum of remedy available in the law.

Sardar Farrukh Mushtaq, a lawyer by profession, filed the petition through Nadeem Sarwar advocate, saying Hamid Mir had delivered a hate speech containing ‘derogatory’ remarks and allegations against a ‘disciplined institution’ of the country.

The lawyer contended that the ‘derogatory’ remarks in the speech of the journalist was pertinent to common violation but the federal government did not take due action under the law. He said the conduct of the respondent journalist was contempt for society and its institutions working under the government. He said the government had failed to take action under Section 124-A of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) against the journalist.

The petitioner asked the court to order the interior ministry to lodge a complaint against Mr Mir and initiate further proceedings under the sedition charge.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2021