LAHORE - The Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice on Friday constituted for the fourth time a full bench to hear petitions against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and other PML-N leaders over their alleged anti-judiciary speeches.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Sayyed Mazhar Ali Akbar Naqvi and consisting of Justice Atir Mahmood and Justice Shahid Jamil Khan was due to hear the petitions on Friday but Justice Shahid Jamil Khan refused to hear the case citing personal reasons.
LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Yawar Ali therefore constituted a new bench by replacing Justice Khan with Justice Chaudhary Muhammad Masood Jahangir. The new bench would start proceedings on April 9.
Earlier, two full benches formed to hear pleas against Nawaz and Maryam stood dissolved: first time when a new roster was issued for the sitting of the judges at different benches of the High Court and, second time, when Justice Shahid Mubeen recused himself from hearing of the case.
Amna Malik, Munir Ahmad and other citizens had moved the petitions against former prime minister Nawz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and some other leaders of the ruling party over their alleged speeches against the judiciary.
The petitioners also allege that Pemra was not fulfilling its obligations and contemptuous remarks against the judges of the superior courts and the judiciary were being broadcast on TVs.
They say the electronic media regulator had intentionally been allowing broadcast of such material on television channels, and such acts of Pemra were tantamount to contempt of court and deserved strict action.
The petitioners also say Pemra has failed to act as an independent regulator and has become a subordinate body of the government. They argue that Pemra officials need to realise that they are not working on the PML-N’s payroll and they have to protect citizens of Pakistan and the state institutions in every regard.
They prayed to the court to order Pemra to bar media houses from airing anything which is against the laws of the land or is offensive to the state institutions.