LAHORE: Justice Anwaar Hussain of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday referred to the chief justice a set of petitions challenging the Punjab Defamation Act 2024.

Senior lawyer Asad Jamal was supposed to argue on behalf of the petitioners but an assistant advocate general questioned the maintainability of the petitions before a single bench.

He stated that the impugned law — Defamation Act — granted the high court’s chief justice certain powers to appoint tribunals and such tribunals had been notified on the advice and consultation with the chief justice.Therefore, he said, the matter should be sent to the chief justice for the hearing or constitution of a larger bench.

Justice Hussain allowed the request of the government’s law officer and forwarded the petitions to the chief justice for further hearing.

At a previous hearing, Justice Hussain had directed the law officer to submit a record of the debate held on the floor of the assembly before the enactment of the Punjab Defamation Act 2024.

The petitions were filed by several journalists’ bodies and individuals, including Lahore Press Club, Punjab Union of Journalists, Benazir Shah and others. The LHC had already linked any proceedings under “The Defamation Act 2024” to the final decision on the petitions challenging the law.

In July last year, the advocate general of Punjab had told the court that no proceedings had so far been started under the Defamation Act 2024.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2026