Daily Times

LAHORE: Justice Atir Mehmood of the Lahore High Court on Monday dismissed as not maintainable a petition seeking directions to the federal government to initiate high treason proceedings against Maulana Fazlur Rehman of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi for delivering speeches against judiciary and the armed forces.

The court held that chief justice of Pakistan had already taken suo motu notice of the issue, adding that it is prerogative of the federal government to initiate high treason proceedings and that the petitioner should have approached the appropriate forum instead of filing such a frivolous petition in the high court.

In his petition, Shabbirullah submitted that both the political leaders had been continuously spewing venom against the judiciary and the armed forces which was tantamount to committing high treason. He said that Maulana Fazlur Rehman and TLP central leadership including Khadim Hussain Rizvi, Pir Afzal Qadri and Waheed Anwar had violated Article 6 of the constitution in the garb of protest. He submitted that under Treason Act, 1973, only federal government was empowered to initiate treason proceedings. He requested the court to direct the federal government to initiate proceedings against the JUI and TLP leaders on high treason charges.

Published in Daily Times, November 13^th 2018.