Plea against sale of liquor dismissed as not maintainable

LAHORE: Announcing a reserved verdict, Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza of the Lahore High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition seeking a ban on sale of liquor for being illegal, unconstitutional and against the inunctions of Islam.

The judge dismissed the petition for being not maintainable before the court under article 199 of the Constitution. Justice Mirza had reserved his verdict on the maintainability of the petitioner the other day after hearing arguments of a lawyer, who was petitioner in person. Advocate Nadeem Sarwar argued that the consumption of alcohol was not prohibited in Islam but also in Christianity, Hinduism and other religions. He said only non-Muslims citizens of Pakistan and non-Muslims tourists were allowed to consume liquor in the country. However, he contended that all the hotels having licences had been selling the liquor to every person including Muslims throughout the year. The lawyer asked the court to order the government to cancel the licences of the respondent hotels for selling liquor during the whole year to any person.

remand extended: An accountability court on Thursday extended judicial remand of three accused in an online fraud for 14 days. The court extended judicial remand of accused Qasim Bilal, Ghulam Mustafa and Muhammad Arshad Ilahi. The court directed the NAB to submit a report on the status of reference against the accused. That NAB last year had arrested the accused involved in online fraud worth Rs 270 million. According to NAB, owner and manager Khadija Commodities’ owner Qasim Bilal, Arshad Elahi and other were arrested for allegedly committing fraud with the general public in the name of online investment. The firm defrauded over 900 people/investors depriving them of Rs 270m. Moreover, Sargodha DPO had filed an application with the bureau for action against this company. The NAB had launched investigation against the company in October last year.