LAHORE, Jan 30: The Lahore High Court allowed on Wednesday a petitioner to amend his petition against the inclusion of Mianwali district in the proposed Bahawalpur Janoobi Punjab province.

On behalf of the petitioner, Advocate Azhar Siddique advanced arguments with a prayer to set aside decisions taken by a Parliamentary Commission about the establishment of new provinces.

The counsel argued that incumbent political parties sitting in assemblies had no mandate to create new provinces.

He said neither the president, the prime minister nor the National Assembly speaker had any power to form a parliamentary commission on provinces issue nor such commission had any jurisdiction to amend the Constitution.

Advocate Siddique argued that Article 239 of the Constitution empowered the parliament to change geographical limits of provinces.

He pointed out that Mianwali wasmore close to Lahore than Multan but political parties were bent upon including Mianwali in new proposed province only to gain political mileage in the upcoming general election.

Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan observed that the report of the parliamentary commission should be made part of the case but the petitioner did not array the commission in the respondents list.

Advocate General Punjab Ashtar Ausaf also stated that the court could summon the report of the commission.

At this, the petitioner`s counsel sought court`s permission to amend the petition so that he could make the commission a necessary party in the case.

The judge allowed the request and adjourned hearing till Thursday (today).

REPORT SOUGHT: The Lahore High Court directed the DIG prisons to submit a detailed report about the age of prisoners who were being released under the benefit of being old aged.

The court passed the order while hearing a petition moved by Shamim Ara seeking release of her two sons(murder convicts) invoking a presidential order about the release of old-aged prisoners.

The petitioner submitted that her sons Tufail and Zaman -had undergone two/third period of their punishment and crossed the age of70.

She said according to the presidential order issued in 2010 her sons were eligible to be released but the jail authorities were not releasing them.

The petitioner pointed out that about 19 prisoners had been given the same benefit. She prayed to the court to issue directions to the jail authorities to release her sons.

DIG Prisons Mubashar Khan appeared before the court and stated that a medical check-up was done to determine the age of petitioner`s sons and it was found that they were below 70year.

He alleged that both prisoners had managed fake identity cards to take benefit of the concession.

The judge directed the DIG to submit a record of date of births of prisoners.

Next hearing will be held on Feb 4.