LAHORE, March 13: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday extended suspension of Khan Muhammad Jahanzeb Khan Khichi, newly-elected MPA in by-election held in PP-239 of Vehari.

The Election Commission failed to submit its reply to a petition seeking disqualification of the MPA and Justice Ayesha A. Malik postponed further hearing till March 19 extending the stay order till next date.

A PPP’s defeated candidate, Imran Khan Khichi, had questioned the eligibility of the MPA. The petitioner submitted that Jahanzeb Khan Khichi being a bank loan defaulter was not eligible to even contest the election.

He urged the court to invoke the provisions of Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution and disqualify the respondent.

Meanwhile, Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan adjourned hearing of a petition seeking disqualification of Safdar Gill, MPA from PP-274, Bahawalpur, for being a fake degree holder.

Gill’s counsel argued that the court could not proceed with the case till the Supreme Court did not decide the matter of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s disqualification. He argued that no member of the assembly could be disqualified till the qualification of leader of the house was not decided. He asked the court to delay the hearing till decision from the SC.

Justice Khan adjourned hearing till March 27 and directed the counsel from both sides to come up with further arguments on the point raised by the respondent’s counsel.

The judge also adjourned hearing of an identical petition against Federal Minister for Labour Liaquat Abbas Bhatti. In this case, the petitioner alleged that the minister had bogus degrees of FA and BA. The Punjab University presented academic record of the minister which confirmed that the intermediate degree was bogus. The counsel for the minister refuted the charges and said the case against his client was politically motivated.

The judge deferred the hearing till March 26 and asked counsel of the parties to come up with further arguments.

CNG cylinders: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Wednesday sought a report from the federal government on a plea seeking action against substandard CNG cylinder manufacturers until April 29, reports APP.

The single bench comprising the chief justice passed the orders on a petition filed by petitioner-counsel Rana Mehtab.

Earlier, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority’s (OGRA) counsel submitted a detailed report about the steps taken to check substandard cylinders following court orders in this regard.

OGRA stated in the report several public vehicles had been challaned for not following rules. However, the petitioner-counsel contended only challans were not the solution of the problem and pointed out several public vehicles had five cylinders, which was dangerous.

However, OGRA’s counsel mentioned only two cylinders were being allowed in public vehicles.

To a court query, the counsel submitted OGRA had referred the matter to the federal government for legislation but a meeting could not take place yet. The court directed the federal government to cooperate with OGRA and sought a report from it by April 29 and adjourned the matter till then.

The petitioner through his petition submitted a lot of people had lost their lives due to explosions in substandard CNG cylinders, but the respondent departments were not performing their duty to check this trend.

He pleaded the court to issue directions to respondents for taking immediate action against such cylinder manufacturers and installation workshops.