LAHORE – A Lahore High Court (LHC) full bench on Friday handed down one-month imprisonment to former PML-N MNA Sheikh Waseem Akhtar and three other local leaders for taking out an anti-judiciary rally in Kasur and giving statements against judges.
The bench also imposed a fine of Rs 100,000 each on the convicts including former Kasur Municipal Committee Vice Chairman Ahmad Latif, former Kasur Baitul Maal Chairman Nasir Mehmood Khan and former Kasur Market Committee Chairman Jamil, besides the former MNA.
The bench declaring the accused guilty observed that contemptuous statements were made against the judiciary.
However, the bench acquitted former MPA Naeem Safdar and former Kasur Municipal Committee Chairman Ayaz Khan.
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The full bench, headed by Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, had reserved the verdict on a petition, filed by Kasur District Bar President Mirza Naseem and others, after hearing arguments of the parties on Monday.
On the last hearing, the defence counsel challenged the investigation of the prosecution on merit and also tendered unconditional apology before the court.
However, the petitioner’s counsel requested for awarding strict punishment to the accused.
The petitioners had filed the petitions pleading that the protest rally taken out by the parliamentarians and local government leaders affiliated with the PML-N was a planned conspiracy against the institution of judiciary.
They said the act of the respondents amounted to contempt of court and they were all liable to be punished under the law.
They asked the court to also declare the respondents disqualified besides initiating contempt proceedings against them.
In April, the police booked about 80 PML-N activists for allegedly staging an anti-judiciary demonstration in the backdrop of an apex court verdict, announcing lifetime disqualification of former PML-N chief Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.
Police registered a case against the accused under sections 166, 506, 341, 228, 109, 147 and 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code 9.
