LAHORE: A lawyer has asked the Supreme Court to overrule the registrar office’s objections to his petition challenging the allocation of alleged disproportionate development funds to the constituencies of interim chief minister Parvez Elahi and his family members.

The registrar office had questioned the maintainability of the petition raising multiple objections to it.

Requesting the court to fix hearing of the petition, Advocate Mian Dawood, the petitioner in person, argues in his reply that the registrar office does not enjoy powers to decide the maintainability of a petition or an appeal. The reply has been filed at the Lahore registry.

He states the maintainability is a justiciable issue that calls for adjudication, which is solely prerogative of the court.

He argues that the office usurped the judicial powers of the court by declaring that the petition lacked ingredients for invoking the extraordinary jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

The lawyer argues that the registrar officer cannot decide whether a matter falls within the definition of public importance or violation of fundamental rights of citizens. He asks the court to set aside the decision of the registrar office and order it to fix the hearing of his petition.

In his petition, the petitioner contended that the CM distributed development funds of billions to the constituencies of his family members in violation of constitutional provisions and the rights of the citizens living in other parts of the province.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2023