LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan has fixed hearing of a matter pending adjudication for years regarding recovery of loans under Finance Institutions (Recovery of Finances) Ordinance 2001.

A statement issued by the LHC spokesman said Prime Minister Imran Khan during his July 31 speech at a ceremony for Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme had referred to the matter and requested the chief justice for early disposal of the petitions.

These petitions first came up for hearing in 2016 before the then chief justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah wherein Section 15 of the ordinance was challenged. The court had suspended that section.

The grievance of the petitioners was that the section had been reintroduced in the ordinance through Financial Institutions (Recovery of Finances) Amendment Act 2016 and was not sustainable in light of Supreme Court’s judgements.

Last time a larger bench had taken up the matter on May 25, but only to adjourn it till July 11 due to unavailability of the federal government’s law officer and counsel for the State Bank of Pakistan.

Now the bench will take up the petitions on Sept 13, the statement said.

The five-member larger bench comprises Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh, Justice Jawad Hassan and Justice Asim Hafeez.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2019