LAHORE - The Lahore High Court on Friday directed a petitioner to approach the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for redressing his grievance against observing of Black Friday in the country.
Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza took up the matter and observed that shopping malls with special discount offers to attract consumers especially for Christmas shopping.
Naveed Anwar, a citizen, moved the petition submitting that the event had no place in Islam or the culture of Pakistan rather it was a tradition of western countries.
He submitted that widely celebration of “Black Friday” was a result of growing influence of western culture in Pakistan. The petitioner asked the court to ban it and order the ministry to make the shopping malls use any other name of the festival to offer special discounts for consumers. He said the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) should be directed to take notice of the situation and issue a policy on this. After hearing initial arguments, Justice Mirza directed the petitioner to approach the ministry for redressal of his grievance and disposed of the petition.
Petition against protocol of
Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Safdar:
The Lahore High Court on Friday issued notices to federal and provincial governments in a petition challenging protocol of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Safdar.
Justice Shahid Karim took up the matter moved by Andleeb Abbas of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), and issued pre-admission notice to the federal and Punjab governments for Dec 21. The petitioner lady through his counsel Ijaz Malik argued on behalf the petitioner that Mr Sharif despite his disqualification had been enjoying state protocol in sheer violation of the laws. He said Nawaz Sharif had been using Punjab House and 40 vehicles in addition as protocol.
The petitioner said that the SC had disqualified Nawaz Sharif over corruption charges and therefore, he could not use state protocol. She also alleged that a hefty amount of Rs2.18 million had been spent from public money on protocol provided to Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam during their appearances before the Joint Investigation Team that held a probe into Panama Papers case.
She asked the court to issue a direction to the government authorities to withdraw the official protocol from disqualified prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam. He also asked the court to stop him from holding meetings in the Punjab House.