Petition for contempt proceedings against PM

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court was on Saturday asked to initiate contempt proceedings against Prime Minister Imran Khan on the basis of an “anti-judiciary” speech he delivered few days back.

A citizen, Tahir Maqsood, made this request through a petition filed through his counsel advocate Faizan Naseer Chohan.

The petitioner contended that the prime minister tried to make cases pending against opposition leaders prejudiced by delivering a speech.

He said the prime minister criticised senior judges of the Supreme Court which amounted to contempt of court.

The petitioner pointed out that the SC had in 2013 issued a contempt notice to Mr Khan for his ‘anti-judiciary rants’.

To establish maintainability of his petition, the petitioner referred to conviction of PML-N leaders Talal Chaudhry and Nehal Hashmi by the apex court for their anti-judiciary speeches.

He asked the court to summon Prime Minister Imran Khan in person, disqualify him and order the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to de-notify him as member of the National Assembly.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2019