LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Aalia Neelum on Wednesday summoned Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Rao Abdul Kareem in a contempt of court petition against personnel of the Chuhng police.
The chief justice was hearing a petition filed by citizen Mian Muhammad Jamil, with Superintendent of Police (SP) Abdullah appearing before the court on behalf of the Chuhng police.
The petitioner’s counsel, Advocate Shahbaz Bhatti, informed the judge that an LHC single bench had suspended a 2021 order by a sessions court of registering a first information report (FIR) against his client.
Despite the single bench ruling, the counsel alleged, the police registered a case against the petitioner unlawfully.
When Justice Neelum asked SP Abdullah to read the FIR aloud, he was unable to properly read or narrate its contents.
‘Why is the FIR not readable? I cannot understand what has been written in it,’ the chief justice remarked.
Expressing her displeasure over the manner in which the complaint had been written, Justice Neelum observed that such FIRs were not even readable.’The entire Punjab is suffering; this is the situation everywhere,’ she remarked.
The chief justice also sarcastically observed that the writing in the FIR looked like ‘flies’. ‘Even the size of the flies is bigger [than this],’ she quipped.
Justice Neelum then summoned IG Kareem in person along with the relevant record for Thursday (today).
The IG was also summoned for Thursday in a separate case, where the chief justice rejected an inquiry report submitted in a contempt of court matter against the Lahore capital city police officer (CCPO).
Justice Neelum was hearing a petition filed by citizen Momin Khan, who alleged that police officials were harassing him despite court orders.
The petitioner’s counsel contended that an earlier petition against police harassment had been referred to the CCPO for redressal, but the police continued to subject him to harassment.
Asserting that the police failed to comply with the court’s directions, the counsel sought contempt proceedings against the CCPO.
ADJOURNED: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday expressed serious displeasure over non-compliance with its order in a case related to pro forma promotion of a police officer and also took exception to remarks made about the court in a miscellaneous application.
Chief Justice Aalia Neelum summoned the addi-tional secretary (Establishment) in person at the next hearing and sought an explanation as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him.
The chief justice was hearing a petition filed by DIG Ahmad Nasir Aziz Virk seeking pro forma promotion.
Earlier, Federal Secretary (Establishment) Nabeel Awan appeared before the court along with Additional Attorney General Nasr Ahmad Mirza and other law officers.
During the hearing, the chief justice directed the additional attorney general not to respond on behalf of the secretary establishment.
The chief justice also examined the contents of a civil miscellaneous application filed on behalf of the establishment division.
She observed that one of its paragraphs appeared to contain objectionable remarks against the court.
The chief justice asked Deputy Secretary Establishment Nadeem Abbas, who was present in the court, who had directed the filing of the application.
He replied that it had been filed on the instructions of the additional secretary.
At this, the chief justice directed the additional secretary to appear in person at the next hearing and explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him.
The hearing was adjourned for 10 days.