LAHORE - A five-member full bench of the Lahore High Court deferred till April 17 the hearing of a contempt petition against a reporter and chief editor of a newspaper for maligning a judge of the High Court. Bench comprising Justice Mian Najam-uz-Zaman, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed directed the respondent report, chief editor and at that time regional police officer Zulfiqar Cheema to personally appear on next date of hearing. Bench also directed the reporter and the chief editor to file their replies. A third respondent Zulfiqar Cheema did not appear on which the bench directed the LHC office to issue reminder to Cheema through inspector general Punjab police. As the proceedings commenced on Friday, the respondent newspaper's counsel sought time to file reply. He submitted that the chief editor was out of the country and the reporter received notice late on Thursday night so he could not appear. Bench accepted this request. During the proceeding advocate Aftab Bajwa appeared on behalf of the public at large and requested to allow him to become party, as Zulfiqar Cheema was not enjoying good mental health and ordered be issued for his mental health examination. Justice Mian Saqib Nisar asked the lawyers to avoid such remarks about a senior police officer. The contempt petition was filed by Barrister Zafarullah which was earlier taken by a single bench comprising Justice Mian Najam-uz-Zaman who on Feb 13 had issued notices to respondents and referred the petition to Chief Justice for the formation of a larger bench to proceed further. Earlier, Justice Mian Najam-uz-Zaman on February 13 had held the preliminary hearing of the main case (contempt petition) and while admitting it for regular hearing had issued notice to all the respondents. Judge had also referred the matter to Chief Justice Zahid Hussain to constitute a larger bench to hear the petition. Judge has also restrained the print and electronic media from publishing and airing news or comments about the alleged scandal of the judge of superior court. Barrister Zafarullah Khan filed the contempt petition under article 204 of the constitution. Petitioner said that he felt aggrieved about a news item appeared in The News, an English newspaper, on February 10 last by a reporter against one of the senior judges of the LHC. Court demands Lankan team statements An inquiry tribunal comprising Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi of the Lahore High Court has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to manage within a week production or statements of Sri Lankan cricket team members who were attacked at Liberty Chowk on March 03, 2009. On Friday, the tribunal recorded statements of SP Civil Lines Rai Ijaz, SP Model Town Abid Khan, DSP Race Course Faisal Gulzar, DIG/Liaison Officer PCB Sohail Khan, SP Muhammad Ali Nekukar and ASI Hafeezullah. Adjourning the in-camera proceedings of the judicial inquiry till March 30, the tribunal summoned eleven more police officials to record their statements. The officers included DSP Special Branch, SHO Race Course, SHO Shadman, SHO Ghalib Market, ASI Model Town Riaz, SI Zulqarnain, ASI Ashiq, constables Muhammad Akbar, Ramzan, Saleem and Iftikhar. Earlier, in the inquiry Home Secretary Punjab, Inspector General of Police, CCPO Lahore, DCO Lahore, DIG (Operations), DIG (VVIP Securities), SSP (Operations) Lahore, SP Model Town, AIG Special Branch, AIG CIA (former & incumbent), AIG Investigations and other police officials have been testified.