LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday directed the Punjab police to furnish it with details of the cases, if any, registered against MPA Awais Ahmad Leghari and three other leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

On behalf of the petitioners, Advocate Rana Asadullah Khan appeared before the court and contended that the government implicated the petitioners through supplementary statements in an already registered case regarding the violence committed in April 16 election of the chief minister.

Other petitioners are Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, Attaullah Tarar and Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan.

The counsel said the case was registered against the MPAs of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and the PML-Q for disrupting the voting for the chief minister’s election and manhandling the then deputy speaker/presiding officer. He said police by misleading the magistrate concerned got issued arrest warrants of the petitioners.

The counsel submitted that Chief Minister Parvez Elahi turned hostile to the petitioners and resorted to political victimisation by ordering fake cases against them. He said the petitioners approached police to get details of the cases against them but the officials flatly refused to share any information.

He asked the court to summon details of the cases from police and also restrain them from arresting the petitioners in the politically motivated cases.

Justice Tariq Nadeem asked the counsel how the court could restrain police from arresting anyone. The judge, however, directed police to submit details of the cases registered against the petitioners. The judge would resume the hearing on Wednesday (today).

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2022