LAHORE: Justice Shahid Karim of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday reserved the decision on maintainability of a petition seeking directives to investigate Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s claim of Rs 10 billion bribe offer to keep mum on Panama leaks issue.
Advocate Ghazi Ilamuddin filed the petition. He contended that offering of a Rs 10 billion bribe by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was a serious issue, which should be investigated thoroughly. He said that Imran Khan’s statement had shaken the national politics, and like other citizens he wanted a probe into the Rs 10 billion bribe offer.
He said that the ruling Sharif family had denied the allegation but the PTI chief was insisting on saying that a common friend had made the offer of Rs 10 billion on behalf of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shahbaz. He sought directives for investigation into the PTI chief’s claim.
Separately, a petition was filed before the Lahore High Court on Wednesday seeking directives to impose a complete ban on broadcasting or telecasting programmes on peding cases in courts.
A local resident, MH Mujahid, filed the petition. Counsel for petitioner AK Dogar said that the law of the land did not allow comments on pending cases in the courts but the media was not paying any heed to the law. He said that it had become a tradition to utter remarks on sub judice matters.
He said that it was responsibility of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to ensure that such violation should not be made by the electronic media. He requested the court to impose a ban airing of programmes on pending cases before courts.
