LHC orders to book 'miscreants' under ATA

LAHORE - A seven-member full bench of the Lahore High Court has directed the chief secretary, home secretary and inspector general police Punjab to identify the ‘miscreants’ who locked down courtrooms of provincial subordinate judiciary on Nov 04 and book them under anti-terrorism act.

Chief Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain while taking strict notice of Nov 04 incident had constituted the bench on Wednesday morning which started hearing the same day. The formation of the seven-member bench was decided in an emergent meeting of the administration committee of the LHC held on Tuesday.

The bench consisted of Justice Mian Najam-uz-Zaman, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Abdul Shakoor Parracha, Justice Nasim Sikandar, Justice M Bilal Khan, Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi and Justice Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq.

In first phase of the proceedings that started at about 1:00pm, the bench directed Additional Advocate General Hanif Khatana to ask the chief secretary, home secretary and IGP to appear in person at 2:30pm.

Lamenting the poor security measures and negligence of the law enforcement agencies Justice Najam-uz-Zaman, head of the bench, resumed proceedings and termed the locking down of the courtrooms as a very unfortunate incident.