LAHORE, April 22: A lawyer moved a contempt petition against Chief Justice Falak Sher of the Lahore High Court on Monday for not fixing a writ petition challenging the establishment of LHC benches at Rawalpindi, Multan and Bahawalpur for hearing.
Petitioner-lawyer MD Tahir said the benches were created in 1981 while the petition was filed in 1989. Arguments on the petition, advanced by him and Advocate Hamid Khan on behalf of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, Lahore, before a five-member bench concluded four years ago.
The petition has not been listed since, though he submitted applications for early hearing. Advocate Hamid Khan, since elected president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, and former LHCBA president Syed Kaleem Khurshid also met the CJ but to no avail. Meanwhile, there is talk of creation of more benches at Faisalabad and Sargodha. The pendency of the petition amounts to obstruction of justice, which amounts to contempt under Article 240 of the Constitution and the Contempt Act.
LHCBA: The LHC Bar Association office-bearers, meanwhile, expressed their confidence on Monday that the lawyers of Faisalabad and Sargodha would foil attempts to divide the Bar by establishing new high court benches and would observe strike on
April 25.
Hashwani’s plea: A three-member bench of the Lahore High Court has disposed of a writ petition filed by entrepreneur Sadruddin Hashwani in terms of an official statement that the case against him has been dropped.
The petitioner had sought quashment of an FIR registered against him for alleged purchase of CDA commercial plots in collusion with the authority’s employees.
The (defunct) Ehtesab Bureau instituted an inquiry into the allegations through the FIA. However, no substance was found in the charges or the FIR and the FIA dropped the inquiry and quashed the FIR.
Deputy Attorney-General Khwaja Saeeduz Zafar informed the bench comprising Justices Jawad Khwaja, Ijaz Chaudhry and A.S. Paracha of the FIA decision and the bench disposed of the petition as having borne fruit.