LAHORE, Aug 20: The Lahore High Court Registrar office on Monday told a lawyer to file his petition, seeking to restrain the government from claiming it had a treaty on Sharifs’ exile, after the court vacation lapsed.

“The court told me that there was no urgency in the petition. It should be filed after the vacation because at present only matter of urgent nature were being heard,” petitioner MD Tahir advocate told Dawn.

The lawyer had on Saturday moved the LHC, stating that Justice Malik Muhammad Qayyum (retired), now the Attorney General of Pakistan, had himself heard the case regarding Sharifs’ exile but could not find any evidence pertaining to any treaty signed between the government and the Sharifs according to which the latter had allegedly agreed to remain away from the country for 10 years.

Mr Tahir said he had filed a petition (No 24621) before the high court in 2000, challenging the exile of Mian Nawaz Sharif.

The lawyer said had the government possessed any treaty on exile, it would have produced it before Justice Qayyum (retired).

Now the government could not be permitted to place it on record because it might have forged such a document with fake signatures of Mian Nawaz Sharif, he added. —Reporter