LAHORE: A special court (offences in bank) on Friday sought arguments from the prosecution and the defence on the point of its jurisdiction to hold trial proceedings in the money laundering and sugar scam inquiry against Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and his son, Hamza.

As Presiding Judge Tahir Sabir resumed the hearing, a lawyer told the court that lead defence counsel Amjad Pervez was not available due to his appearance before the high court. The lawyer sought a short adjournment.

The judge allowed the request and adjourned the hearing till Jan 4 with a direction to both sides to come up with arguments on the point of court’s jurisdiction.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had challenged the court’s jurisdiction to hold trial in the inquiry wherein a challan had also been filed by the agency.

The FIA had booked Shehbaz and his sons Hamza and Suleman in November 2020 under sections 419, 420, 468, 471, 34 and 109 (financial fraud, impersonation and forgery) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and 5(2) and 5(3) (criminal misconduct) of Prevention of Corruption Act and r/w 3/4 of THE Anti Money Laundering Act.

Suleman Shehbaz is absconding and residing in the UK.

Arabic teachers: The Lahore High Court on Friday sought a report from the Punjab government about the progress on the recruitment of teachers for Arabic language in order to implement teaching of the Holy Quran in schools.

A division bench headed by Justice Shahid Waheed was hearing an appeal seeking teaching of the Quran in schools.

An official of the education department told the bench that 7,000 teachers were being given training in the first phase. He said a total of 60,000 Arabic language teachers were required in the province. He said there were financial constraints but the process of appointment of the teachers would start soon.

The bench adjourned further hearing till Jan 3 and directed the education department to submit a progress report.

In this case, the bench had earlier directed the sessions judges of all the districts in Punjab to check in their relevant territories whether the Holy Quran was being taught as a separate subject as claimed by the education department.

The school education department in a report had confirmed that the chief executive officers of the district education authorities visited all the schools (public, private, madressahs) in their respective areas and confirmed that the Holy Quran was being taught in every school as a separate subject.

The judge had ordered that the D&SJs or their nominees would not only check whether Quran was being taught as a separate subject but also counter-verify that the facts narrated by the education department were correct in all respects.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2021