Islamabad:
The chief judge of the High Court of Lahore (LHC), Aalia Neelum, formed a wider bench to hear a plea deposited by the government against the suspension of a detention law, the order of public order (MPO), 1960.
One day earlier, Thursday, CJ Aalia Neelum reserved his prescription while hearing a request for an early hearing of a petition filed against last year’s ordinance. The CJ unveiled its order on Friday, announcing the training of a wider bench to hear the government to call.
The LHC of November 1, 2024 temporarily retained the assistant commissioners (DC) in the Punjab to propose new detention orders under article 3 of the 1960 MPO order.
Judge Muhammad Amjad Rafiq adopted the order when creating a request filed by a head of the PTI at the last hearing of the case, the lawyer for the PTI, Azhar Siddique, had raised an objection to the bench including judge Neelum, arguing that the case was still in the course of the Court of Justice Rafiq.
He argued that the bench including the CJ did not have the jurisdiction to hear this case. He said judge Rafiq had already examined the case in detail.
“Judge Amjad Rafiq had made a suspension order in accordance with the law,” he said. The CJ noticed that judge Rafiq currently heard cases in the Multan register of the LHC.
Siddic argued that the bench of judge Amjad Rafiq was in Lahore on March 21 and that the case cannot be registered before this bench. The CJ, however, rejected his assertion, asking him to “be silent”. She then reserved her order in the case in the midst of the protest by the Council.
