Suspect’s bail plea dismissed in SL team attack

A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday dismissed as withdrawn a bail petition of Malik Ishaq of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (formerly Lashkar-e-Jhangvi) facing abetment charges in the Sri Lankan cricket team attack case.  

The bench directed counsel for the accused to approach the trial court for bail. The bench also issued directions to the trial court to decide the matter within 10 days.

Earlier, the counsel for the accused withdrew the petition after the bench observed that the petitioner had approached the high court directly, bypassing the court of first instance.

The bench, however, adjourned the bail petitions of Ishaq in the other two cases registered by Bhakkar police on the charges of delivering objectionable speeches on the ground that the police record was not available.

LHC stays proceedings on Imran’s plea against sadiq: The Lahore High Court on Monday stayed the proceedings of an election tribunal on a petition moved by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, challenging the victory of National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq from NA-122, Lahore.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan issued this order on a petition moved by Ayaz Sadiq against the order of the election tribunal. Khan had filed a petition in the tribunal for withdrawal of the notification regarding PML-N candidate Ayaz Sadiq’s victory, alleging Sadiq had won the seat through a massive vote rigging.

As the hearing started on Monday, the counsel for Ayaz Sadiq submitted that Imran Khan had annexed unattested documents with his petition filed in the tribunal. He pointed out that Imran Khan had submitted a copy of his affidavit instead of filing the original one. By doing this, Khan had violated the election rules, so his petition was liable to be dismissed, the counsel asserted.

After hearing initial arguments, the court restrained the election tribunal from proceeding further on the petition and sought reply from the Election Commission of Pakistan within two weeks.

LHC admits petition seeking Babar Awan’s disqualification: Justice Mansoor Ali Shah of the Lahore High Court on Monday overruled objections of the registrar’s office to a writ petition seeking disqualification of PPP Senator and former law minister Babar Awan for allegedly acquiring a bogus doctorate degree and contesting the Senate election from Punjab where he was not a voter. The LHC registrar’s office had questioned the maintainability of the writ petition on the ground that the petitioner was not an aggrieved party and the election of a parliamentarian could not be challenged through a writ petition.

On Monday, Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi heard the petition as an objection case and overruled the office objection. Now the petition will be filed for routine hearing.

Advocate Afaq Ahmad filed the petition seeking disqualification of the PPP senator. The petitioner stated that Babar Awan had claimed that he had obtained the PhD degree from Hawaii-based Monticello University in 1997-98, which had been established as fake. He also submitted that Babar Awan was registered as a voter in Rawalpindi whereas he was residing in Islamabad and had no property in Rawalpindi.  He prayed to the court to disqualify Awan by invoking provisions of articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution. (Source: The Nation-Pakistan)