LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday accepted the unconditional apology of Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal and Deputy Commissioner Umar Sher Chathah and disposed of a petition seeking action against them under the contempt of court charge for not releasing the arrested workers of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

Advocate Azhar Siddique filed the contempt petition on behalf of the PTI leaders for violation of a court order for release of all arrested and detained workers of the PTI.

On a short notice, the chief secretary and the deputy commissioner appeared before the court of Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti.

The chief justice grilled the officers for not implementing the court order in its letter and spirit.

Additional Advocate General Jawwad Yaqoob told the court that the arrested persons were being released.

Chief Justice Bhatti expressed dismay at the non-implementation of the release order issued a day ago.

“It seems that the chief secretary did not like the court’s order,” he observed.

The chief secretary said he had no role to play in the situation as the court had issued a direct order to the deputy commissioner for the release of the arrested workers.

However, both the chief secretary and the deputy commissioner tendered their unconditional apology, which the court accepted and disposed of the petition.

The PTI workers were arrested during the crackdown on them before the party’s Islamabad march to stop them from taking part in it.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2022