Courtesy LHC
The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday dismissed petitions seeking contempt proceedings against Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Senior Vice-President Maryam Nawaz, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar and former prime minister Imran Khan over alleged campaigns against the judiciary.
In the first instance, Justice Shujaat Ali Khan dismissed petitions filed against Nawaz and Tarar by advocate Shahid Rana as not maintainable. During proceedings, the lawyer argued that the PMLN leader had used “contemptuous” remarks against judges of the Supreme Court in the presence of the law minister and other leaders of the PMLN. In this regard, he urged the court to “punish” Nawaz and Tarar for contempt of court.
In the case against Khan, Justice Shujaat sustained an objection of the registrar’s office over the LHC lacking jurisdiction over an incident that occurred in Islamabad and dismissed it. Arguing for contempt charges to be leveled against the PTI chief for his alleged campaign against the judiciary, advocate Nadeem Sarwar claimed Khan and his party had been running malicious campaigns against the judiciary, and had also staged rallies outside courts that had damaged state property.
He specifically referred Khan’s appearance at the Islamabad Judicial Complex last month, when PTI workers had accompanied the former prime minister, creating a law and order situation and damaging the main gate of the complex and other property.
The petition seeking contempt charges against Sanaullah was filed by advocate Shahid Rana, who had alleged that the interior minister had scandalized judges and the judiciary. Referring to a press conference in which Sanaullah had played an audio clip allegedly between former Punjab chief minister Parvez Elahi and Supreme Court Bar Association President Abid Zuberi, he argued that this was a personal conversation that was recorded and leaked by breaching the law of privacy.
Additionally, the lawyer argued that the minister had attempted to scandalize the judiciary by playing the audio clip. The petitioner noted that he had earlier filed a writ petition for action against the interior minister but a single bench had dismissed it. Despite his urging to the division bench to set aside the decision of the single bench and punish the interior minister under the contempt of court law, the matter was dismissed by Justice Shujaat.