LHC 3-member bench to hear petitions against Nawaz’s speeches

LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Yawar Ali on Monday constituted a three-judge full bench to hear petitions against alleged anti-judiciary speeches of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and other PML-N leaders. Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi would head the new bench also comprising Justice Atir Mahmood and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan. The bench is scheduled to start its proceedings on April 2. However, the counsel for one of the petitioners, Azhar Siddique, on Monday also filed an application for early hearing of the case. The application would be heard by a single-member bench today (Tuesday). Previously, Justice Naqvi, hearing a similar petition, had summoned the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) secretary. The judge had also requested the chief justice to constitute a larger bench to decide the matter after came to know that several identical petitions pending adjudication before other benches. The petitioners mainly contended that the PML-N leadership had been making derogatory speeches against the Supreme Court judges since the disqualification of Nawaz in the Panama Papers case. They said the Pemra had been wilfully allowing broadcasting of hate speeches, defamatory and contemptuous remarks on the television channels as it took no action to enforce its code of conduct and the rules. They stated that the Pemra had been failed to act as an independent regulator rather become a subordinate body of the government. The Pemra officials needed to realize that they were not working on the PML-N’s payroll and had to protect the citizens of Pakistan and the institutions in every regard, the petitioners added. They asked the court to order the Pemra to restrain the media houses from airing anything against the laws and offensive to the state institutions.