LAHORE: A Lahore High Court (LHC) full bench on Thursday adjourned a petition against the notification permitting tapping of phone calls by intelligence agencies until a decision by the Islamabad High Court.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice Aalia Neelum, heard the petition filed by the Judicial Activism Panel (JAP).

The bench included Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Farooq Haider.

During the hearing, JAP chairman Advocate Azhar Siddique argued that the government had issued a notification allowing phone calls to be tapped.

A government’s lawyer informed the bench that a similar case was also under consideration before the Islamabad High Court.

At this, the bench expressed concerns that different rulings could emerge from two separate high courts on the same issue. Therefore, the bench decided to postpone the case until a decision was made by the Islamabad High Court.

RESERVED: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Aalia Neelum reserved the verdict on maintainability of a petition seeking official publication of the government’s proposed constitutional package.

The chief justice heard the petition as an objection case due to the registrar office objections on its maintainability.

An additional attorney general told the court that at present, there was no draft of the constitutional amendment available. He said consultations regarding the amendment were going on among the political parties. He questioned whether the federal government should make the consultation between the political parties public.

The law officer said the relief being demanded by the petitioner was confusing. He said the draft constitutional amendment was yet to be presented to the cabinet for approval. He asked the court to uphold the registrar’s office objection and dismiss the petition for being not maintainable.

The petitioner argued that while the government was defending the constitutional package, it was not willing to publish it for public consultation. He asked the court to direct the government to publish the draft on the ministry of law’s website for an eight-week public consultation period before its presentation in the assembly.

After hearing the arguments, the chief justice reserved the verdict on the maintainability of the petition.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2024