LAHORE, April 16: The Lahore High Court warned former chief minister Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo on Tuesday against further adjournment of the hearing of his appeal in a misappropriation case.
Mr Wattoo was convicted by an accountability court of sanctioning over Rs1 million to Designtex, a Lahore firm, out of the CM’s discretionary fund for furnishing the CM’s Secretariat No 2. He was fined Rs10 million, jailed for three years and disqualified from holding any public office for 15 years.
The ex-CM challenged his conviction by accountability judge MA Shahid Siddiqui in the Lahore High Court. It was assigned to the accountability appellate bench comprising Justices Tasadduq Husain Jilani and Mian Saqib Nisar.
The appellant’s counsel, Advocate Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, sought adjournment when the appeal was fixed on the last date and also on Tuesday when it was fixed for the second time.
Accepting the lawyer’s request, the bench observed that no adjournment would be granted in future.
Deputy Attorney-General Sher Zaman Khan, who prosecuted the case in the trial court, is appearing for the respondent National Accountability Bureau.
NOTICES: EThe Lahore High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Election Commission and the National Reconstruction Bureau in a writ petition praying that academic qualifications be prescribed for all elective offices.
Every candidate seeking election to the National Assembly must be a post-graduate and the contestants for the provincial assembly should at least be graduates. Petitioner-lawyer Zafarullah Khan feared that though graduation has been prescribed for both assemblies, the conditions may be withdrawn under political pressure.
Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmad, who heard the petitioner, ordered that notices be issued to the respondents.
LHCBA: The Lahore High Court Bar Association strongly criticized on Tuesday a reported move to create an LHC bench at Faisalabad.
“It is a political attempt to divide the bar and punish lawyers for their opposition to the presidential referendum”, LHCBA president Chaudhry Muzzammil Khan, secretary Shahid Mahmood Bhatti and other office-bearers told a press conference on Tuesday. Punjab Bar Council vice-chairman Chaudhry Ramazan was also present.
The office-bearers warned that action would be taken against the lawyers supporting the move. The competent forum — the disciplinary and enrolment committees of the PBC — would be approached to have the licences of such lawyers cancelled. They claimed that they have a letter signed by 250 lawyers of Faisalabad who say that they are opposed to the creation of a bench as well the presidential referendum.
Instead of establishing a new bench at Faisalabad, the office-bearers said, the benches functioning at Multan, Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur should be closed down.
The office-bearers threatened ‘direct action’ if the government went ahead with its plan to establish the proposed bench.