LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday dismissed the petitions seeking contempt proceedings against PML-N chief organiser Maryam Nawaz, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar and former prime minister Imran Khan for their alleged campaign against the institution of judiciary.

Advocate Shahid Rana filed the petitions against Ms Nawaz and Tarar.

Justice Shujaat Ali Khan heard the arguments of the lawyer and dismissed the petitions as not maintainable.

The lawyer contended that Maryam Nawaz in her speeches at six instances, including a public meeting in Sargodha, used ‘contemptuous’ words against the judges of the apex court. He said all television channels broadcasted and the print media published the speech of the respondent.

He said the law minister and other leaders of the PML-N were also present at the meeting.

He asked the court to punish Ms Nawaz and Tarar for committing contempt under the law.

IMRAN:Justice Shujaat Ali Khan sustained an objection of the registrar office on a petition seeking contempt proceedings against former prime minister Imran Khan for his alleged campaign against the institution of judiciary.

Advocate Nadeem Sarwar pleaded in his petition that the former prime minister and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), had been running malicious campaigns against the judges and the judiciary since the Supreme Court set aside a ruling of the then deputy speaker of the National Assembly on the no-confidence motion.

He stated that the PTI chairman whenever appeared before a court of law, after his ouster from the government, his workers held rallies outside the courts and also damaged state properties.

The petitioner referred to a recent appearance of Khan before a court at Islamabad Judicial Complex where the PTI workers created a law and order situation and damaged the main gate of the complex and other property.He asked the court to initiate proceedings against Imran Khan under Article 204 (2) (b) of the Constitution read with Article 2(c) of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003.

The office had objected to the maintainability of the petition on the ground of territorial jurisdiction.

Justice Khan upheld the office’s objection and observed that the matter fell within the jurisdiction of the Islamabad High Court.

RANA SANA: A Lahore High Court division bench dismissed an intra court appeal (ICA) for contempt proceedings against Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah for, what he alleged, scandalising the judges and the judiciary.

Petitioner Advocate Shahid Rana submitted that the interior minister at a recent press conference played an alleged leaked audio of a telephonic conversation between former chief minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and Supreme Court Bar Association President Abid Zuberi.He contended that the conversation was a personal affair between a lawyer (Zuberi) and his client (Elahi), which was recorded and leaked by breaching the law of privacy.

The lawyer argued that the minister attempted to scandalise the judiciary by playing the purported audio of a conversation of a lawyer with his client regarding discussion on a case pending before a court.

The petitioner said he filed a writ petition for action against the interior minister but a single bench dismissed it.

He urged the division bench to set aside the decision of the single bench and punish the interior minister under the contempt of court law.

DISMISSED:A Lahore High Court division bench headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi dismissed a petition of Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah as withdrawn challenging his arrest warrants by an anti-terrorism court of Gujranwala.

A counsel for the minister argued before the bench that the case against the petitioner was baseless and there was no possibility of his conviction.

Justice Najafi observed that the petitioner should file an acquittal application before the trial court if he believed there was no possibility of his conviction.

The counsel sought a permission of the court to withdraw the petition.

The bench dismissed the petition as withdrawn.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2023