LAHORE -  The Lahore High Court Thursday issued notice to Pemra Chairman Absar Alam on a contempt petition against him for allegedly speaking against the courts.

Justice Shahid Karim of the LHC passed the order and sought reply from the respondents within two weeks.

Munir Ahmad filed the petition against Pemra chief whose appointment has already challenged through a constitutional petition. The petitioner submitted that the appointment of Absar Alam as a Pemra chief was a result of unlawful engineered procedure maneuvered through two different advertisements, he was openly criticising the courts.

He stated on different forums that he was aggrieved because he had to appear before courts, the petitioner quoted him. He stated that in a civic society any government official feels proud to appear before the courts as the apex courts are the omen of prestige and justice while Absar Alam was showing his wrath merely on the basis that the apex courts of the country are taking of the matters of Pemra very keenly and seriously.

He quoted statement of Absar Alam he gave during his press conference held on May 8, 2017 that “That the Regulatory Body (Pemra) would not be able to work as required by the law if faced with stay orders all the time granted by the Apex Courts of the country,”. 

He said Pemra chairman further stated that he had taken action on 357 complaints lodged with it and 337 of them were challenged in courts. Not only this, Pemra chief has also said “High Courts are even granting stay on the show cause notices issued by the Pemra,” he said.

Kidney thieve’s bail rejected

The Lahore High Court Thursday rejected pre-arrest bail petition of a man allegedly involved in removing kidney of a young man. However, the court granted bail to his wife and son.

Syed Manzoor Shah, the suspect, filed the petition that the police lodged a fabricated case against him as he had nothing to do with the allegation of removing kidney of any person. He requested the court to grant him pre-arrest bail.

However, a deputy prosecutor opposed his petition saying that police investigation found him guilty. He said the victim obtained a loan of Rs10,000 from the suspect and had been paying Rs500 per month to him as mark-up for many years. The Initial investigation proved that the suspect got kidney of the complainant removed, the prosecutor said. At this, Justice Syed Shahbaz Rizvi dismissed his petition. However, the court granted bail to his wife and son in the case.

Irfan, the victim, got a case registered with Hanjarwal police alleging that Syed Manzoor Shah removed his kidney through a forced surgery as he failed to return Rs 10,000 loan to him.