LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday dismissed an inter-court appeal requesting to initiate contempt of court proceedings against former military ruler Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf in connection with his request to the government to lift a travel ban on him. A local resident, Nadeem Butt, filed the petition against Musharraf’s statements against the judiciary. Earlier, a single bench of Justice Shahid Karim on September 13 had dismissed a contempt petition against Gen (r) Musharraf by holding it as non-maintainable. Counsel for the petitioner Rana Asadullah Khan pointed out that Musharraf in his recent interview with electronic media uttered derogatory remarks about judiciary. He said that Musharraf in his interview claimed that then army chief Gen (r) Raheel Sharif had managed things for him against the proceedings under treason charges and secured his safe exit from the country. The petitioner alleged that Musharraf tried to ridicule the judiciary by saying the army had helped him out against treason proceedings. He asserted that Musharraf tried to made mockery of the judiciary and his remarks amounted to contempt of court. He requested that the Law Ministry should be directed to initiate an inquiry against Musharraf for scandalising and ridiculing the institution of judiciary. He also sought a direction for the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to take action against the news channel for showing the derogatory programme against the judiciary. He further requested the court to direct the federal government to file a reference with the Election Commission of Pakistan against All Pakistan Muslim League, a political party of Musharraf, for violating Political Parties Order, 2002, for working against the integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan. After hearing the arguments, the bench on September 26 had reserved the verdict. However, the bench on Wednesday announced the verdict of rejecting the appeal by holding it as non-maintainable. Published in Daily Times, September 28th 2017.