LAHORE, Dec 7: A full bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC), headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry, ordered the Punjab chief secretary and police on Friday to ensure outsiders were not given access to the Government Officers Residences (GOR-I).

The bench, which also has justices Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi and Tariq Shamim as members, is proceeding against the chief secretary, the capital city police officer (CCPO) and the senior superintendent of police (operations) for failing to maintain “law and order” in the GOR. The proceedings were held in-camera.

For the past four days and nights lawyers, students and civil society activist had been gathering outside the residence of Justice Shahid Siddiqui to foil ‘reported’ bids to get the judge’s house evicted.

Justice Chaudhry had ordered his secretary and the registrar to contact the chief secretary and police to have those protestors cleared. On Thursday, the full bench ordered them to explain reasons for non-compliance of the order.

The officials sought time for filing reply to the court on account of shortage of time.

The bench ordered the officials to file their reply by Dec 11.

“It was pointed out by the advocate general that a security plan for the entire GOR-I was prepared but could not be implemented due to certain reasons. The security plan should also be submitted to the court on Dec 11,” the bench wrote.

“In the meanwhile, the respondents shall ensure that the order already passed under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code is duly implemented and nobody is allowed to violate the order or sanctity of the area, which essentially is a private residential area and outsiders cannot be given access,” the bench concluded.

—Correspondent