LAHORE: A lawyer has filed a petition in the Lahore High Court seeking contempt proceedings against former prime minister Imran Khan for his alleged campaign against the institution of judiciary.

Advocate Nadeem Sarwar pleads in his petition that the former prime minister and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), have been running malicious campaigns against the judges and the judiciary since the Supreme Court set aside a ruling of the then deputy speaker of the National Assembly on the no-confidence motion.

He states that the PTI chairman whenever appears before a court of law, after his ouster from the government, his workers hold rallies outside the courts and also damage state properties.

The lawyer argues that the hooliganism and violence committed by the PTI workers at the behest of their party chairman amounts to pressurising the courts to obtain favourable decisions. The petitioner refers to a recent appearance of Khan before a court at Islamabad Judicial Complex where the PTI workers created a law and order situation and damaged the main gate of the complex and other property.

He asks the court to initiate proceedings against Imran Khan under Article 204 (2) (b) of the Constitution read with Article 2(c) of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003.

INTERIOR MINISTER: A lawyer has approached the Lahore High Court for contempt proceedings against Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan for, what he alleges, scandalising the judges and the judiciary.

Advocate Shahid Rana, the petitioner, submits that the interior minister at a recent press conference played an alleged leaked audio of a telephonic conversation between former chief minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi and Supreme Court Bar Association President Abid Zuberi.

He contends that the conversation was a personal affair between a lawyer (Zuberi) and his client (Elahi), which was recorded and leaked by breaching the law of privacy.

The lawyer argues that the minister attempted to scandalise the judiciary by playing the purported audio of a conversation of a lawyer with his client regarding discussion on a case pending before a court.

The petitioner urges the court to punish the interior minister under the contempt of court law.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2023