Plea against MQM accepted for hearing

LAHORE

The Lahore High Court registrar office on Tuesday removed an objection it earlier made to a petition seeking annulment of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) registration and fixed it for preliminary hearing before the chief justice.

Advocate Aftab Virk had again filed the petition after fulfilling requirements of registrar‘s office. 

The lawyer in his petition said a political party registered in Pakistan should be loyal to country but recent statements of MQM chief Altaf Hussain proved that the party was not faithful to Pakistan.

He requested the court to order the election commission to cancel registration of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement  as a political party. The chief justice would hear the petition on September 1.

vacation: A petition has been moved in the Lahore High Court seeking abolition of its summer/winter vacation and extension of working of judges for eight-hour a day. 

Syed Feroz Shah Gillani, president Lawyers Foundation for Justice, has filed the petition through Advocate AK Dogar.

The petitioner pleaded that luxury of summer vacation for more than two months was highly unjust in a developing country like Pakistan and it seemed to be a sheer waste of public time and contribution to laziness. 

He said the Constitution enshrines expeditious justice and pendency of a large number of cases in the courts was an eye-opener demanding that the huge backlog be cleared and suffering people be granted justice.

It said the superior courts were also closed for winter vacation for more than two weeks ostensibly for the reason that Englishmen used to enjoy Christmas holidays.

He stated the principle of equality applies to all judges, lawyers and citizens. It is vital for judges to work for eight-hour a day sitting in courtrooms with a break of half an hour.

The petitioner requested the court to declare summer/winter vacation inconsistent with the fundamental right of expeditious justice and void. 

convicted: An Additional District and Sessions Court on Monday awarded life imprisonment to one Fahad Ali over murder charges.

Fahad Ali had murdered one Zahid Gull in 2002 over monetary issue. Police had arrested Fahad and had submitted challan in the court declaring him guilty of murder.

However, the prosecution produced insufficient evidence before the court which turned death sentence of the convict into life imprisonment.