courts:

By Abid Butt

LHC issues notice to home sec on PPP workers’ detention plea

LAHORE: Justice Rustam Ali Malik of the Lahore High Court (LHC) has issued notice to the home secretary on a writ petition challenging the detention of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) workers from Okara district and asked him to reply to the petition within 15 days. Justice Malik also asked the state counsel Akbar Tarar to appear in the court after seeking instructions from relevant quarters. Petitioners Nazir, Sajid and Tariq said that they were arrested on April 15 so that they could not receive their party leader Asif Ali Zardari at Lahore Airport on April 16. They said that the home secretary had ordered their detention for three months each. They said that they had no other option but to approach the LHC because the home secretary had dismissed their application against the detention orders. The court directed the home secretary to dispose of the matter as soon as possible.

—issues notice to Sheikhupura SHO on contempt plea

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Saddar stationhouse officer (SHO), Sheikhupura, on a contempt petition seeking compliance of judicial orders. Petitioner Qudsia Akram submitted that she had lodged an FIR against Yasin and Tahir through a judicial order under charges of burning her by throwing acid on her face. She said that the police had not arrested the accused and was in fact protecting them. The court directed Rana Javed Anwar, state counsel, to ensure compliance of orders and to appear for assistance of the court on June 4. The petitioner submitted that she and the accused worked in the same office and that they had approached her. She admonished them and threatened to lodge an FIR against them. She said that they threw acid on her in revenge on March 23, 2004, and burnt her face, arm and other parts of her body.

—puts off election petitions against 2 PML members

LAHORE: An election tribunal of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday put off election petitions against MNA Rashid Akbar Nawani and MPA Saeed Akbar Nawani till May 29 and June 6 respectively. The elected members belong to the Pakistan Muslim League and contested the election from Bhakkar district. Petitioners Muhammad Shafi, who lost at NA-74 to Rashid Nawani, and Maulana Muhammad Yousaf, who lost at PP-44 to Saeed Nawani, provincial minister, say the elected candidates should not have been allowed to stand for the election, as they were not graduates. They said that the respondents had acquired fake degrees from a religious institution.

—orders jail official to allow murderer sentence remission

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC), on a petition by a murder convict serving a life sentence, has ordered the Faisalabad district jail superintendent to grant him remission as announced by President Gen Pervez Musharraf. Petitioner Ishfaq Ahmed said that he was given the death sentence by an additional district and sessions judge in 2000 but later his death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment by the LHC. Ahmed said that the superintendent had refused to give him the remission announced by President Musharraf.

ASJ grants bail to blasphemy accused

LAHORE: An additional sessions judge (ASJ) on Tuesday granted bail to a blasphemy accused. Bail was set at Rs 40,000. Lawyer Qurban Ali Tabbasam lodged the case against Hafiz Afzal-ur-Rehman of Sattelite Town, Rawalpindi, on October 26, 2004. Qurban alleged that he, Waseem Mahmood Malik and Kamal Mustafa, also lawyers, saw the accused carrying a covered book in his hand and a nameplate round the neck and shouting indecent slogans about the Quran and Allah in the Lahore district courts. The local police arrested the accused and lodged a case under the blasphemy law. Counsel Pervaiz Chaudhry, Legal Aid for the Destitute chief, said that the accused was not of sound mind. He had moved the bail application before a magistrate, who rejected it on April 24, after which he approached the sessions court. He said that under the blasphemy law, no private person could be a complainant. He said that federal and provision government representatives or the district police officer had the authority to lodge a case if the first inquiry indicated that the allegations were true. He said that the accused is mentally ill and deserved the concession of bail.

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