LAHORE: A Lahore High Court full bench will take up on May 2 (tomorrow) a petition seeking disqualification of parliamentarians of PML-N from Kasur for holding a protest demonstration against the judiciary.

Kasur District Bar Association President Mirza Naseem moved the petition pleading that the protest rally taken out by the parliamentarians and local government leaders affiliated to the ruling PML-N was a planned conspiracy against the judiciary.

He said PML-N MNA Waseem Sajjad and MPA Safdar Ansari led the protest while chairmen and vice chairmen of the local union councils were among the prominent participants.

The lawyer pleaded that the act of the respondent parliamentarians amounted to committing contempt of court and they were all liable to be punished under the law.

He asked the court to declare the respondents disqualified and initiate contempt proceedings against them.

The petition has been fixed for hearing before a three-judge full bench headed by Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi that already seized with a petition against anti-judiciary speeches of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam and other leaders of the PML-N. The same bench had also put a complete ban on media coverage of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London chief Altaf Hussain.

SIT-IN: A LHC full bench on Monday issued fresh notices to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Dr Tahirul Qadri on petitions challenging the joint sit-in staged in Islamabad during 2014.

As the bench headed by Justice Anwarul Haq resumed hearing of the long pending petitions, no one appeared on behalf of the heads of the both responding parties. The bench adjourned further hearing till May 25 and issued fresh notices to them.

Lawyers’ Foundation, Rana Ilamuddin Ghazi, Amjad Ali Qasim and others had filed the petitions pleading that Imran Khan and Qadri held the sit-in in violation of a court order only to create unrest and anarchy in the country.

DISMISSED: The LHC dismissed for non-prosecution two of the petitions against the establishment of public sector companies working in the province.

However, Justice Shahid Karim heard concluding arguments of the counsel and government law officers in two other identical petitions observing that the court would look into the fact whether these companies could have been formed under section 42 of the Companies Ordinance.

Advocate Sheraz Zaka on behalf of the petitioners questioned the functioning of the public companies and appointment of MPAs as members of their boards of directors. He argued that members of the assembly could not become part of the companies under public sector companies rules 2013.

The government law officer and private counsel for the companies defended the establishment and working of the public sector companies under the law. They urged the court to dismiss the petitions.

Justice Karim observed that the issue would be decided once and for all that whether duplication of resources could be allowed when already there was a local government system.

The judge dismissed two of the interconnected petitions for non-prosecution as the counsel did not turn up for the last many hearings. The judge adjourned the hearing till Monday directing both sides -- petitioners and government -- to submit relevant case laws in support of their assertions.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2018