0
LAHORE, Jan 16: The prosecution on Thursday formally showed its inability to produce both Dr Ahmad Javed Khwaja and Ahmad Naveed Khwaja before an anti-terrorism court on security grounds and sought a three-month adjournment.
The court issued a notice to the defence for Jan 21 on the application filed by the prosecution.
This is for the first time that the prosecution has moved a formal application to the court requesting that the accused should not be summoned owing to security reasons. Prior to this, the prosecution has been making verbal requests which were rejected by the court which sought a formal application that could be argued upon formally.
The application (filed on Thursday) said the two accused had been detained for three months on the orders of federal government under the Security of Pakistan Act, 1952. “The prosecution could not produce the accused before the court since their production was a big security risk and could create a law and order situation.”
Prosecutor Rana Bukhtiar further submitted that the forensic expert’s report on the empties collected outside the residence of the accused was still awaited. Therefore, a complete challan could not be submitted against them. The court was requested to adjourn the case for three months on these grounds.
Defence counsel Pervez Inayat Malik refuted the submission, saying the prosecution had no legal justification for not producing the accused before the court. He claimed that no law and order situation arose during the production of the accused in December last. The prosecution was challenged to produce a legal provision that an accused could not be produced even if summoned repeatedly by the court. He submitted that the only way prosecution’s application could be allowed was the withdrawal of interim challan filed against the accused since they could not be proved guilty as yet.
The detained have been accused of having opened an indiscriminate fire on the police party and conspiring against the sovereignty of the country.
AMTS: Declaring the Ministry of Defence reply on the alleged harassment of a citizen by an army monitoring teams (AMT), the Lahore High Court chief justice on Thursday sought detailed submissions on Jan 20.
The court observed that the reply submitted to it was not convincing and lacked force to satisfy it. The court also wanted the ministry to clarify under what laws the AMTs were still harassing civilians and interfering in their matters.
In its reply, the ministry said no monitoring cell of the army was currently operating in the Lahore Cantonment area and the allegations levelled by the petitioner were unfounded.
Asad Ayub, the petitioner, has alleged that Col Muhammad Tariq, an AMT official, in connivance with Khwaja Muhammad Ishaq has been harassing and forcing him to sign a document for the payment of Rs1.2 million to the latter.
The court has already ordered the withdrawal of the Punjab police force attached with the AMTs with directions that no civilian was to be produced before them by the police even if directed so.
TRANSFERRED: The Supreme Court ordered the transfer of a petition challenging the grant of franchise rights to a company for plying buses on two Lahore city routes, to Rawalpindi.
The court observed that since a full bench of the Supreme Court in Rawalpindi was already hearing a similar matter, this case should also be heard by it on Jan 30.
The wagon owners had already been granted stay by the court against the grant of franchise rights to Premier Bus Service for plying buses on routes 12 and 14.
Punjab Advocate General Maqbool Elahi Malik appeared before the court and opposed the grant of stay, saying it should be vacated since it had been passed without hearing the respondent.
