An additional district and sessions judge on Wednesday while suspending the order of a civil court stayed election of Mall Road Traders Association till July 16. The court issued this order on an appeal filed by Raja Hamid Riaz and summoned counsels of the parties for arguments on next hearing. Raja Hamid Riaz submitted that he challenged election process before civil court pointing out certain irregularities by election board. But the court allowed holding of the election. He asked for the order of civil court to be set aside.
The court will resume hearing on July 16.
Commissioner prefers meeting CM over Mall Road traders: Lahore Commissioner Jawad Rafique was supposed to meet representatives of Mall Road traders on Wednesday to take them onboard for stopping rallies on Mall Road but the meeting was cancelled as the commissioner had to attend a meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. The meeting called by the CM was to devise a food price mechanism for Ramadan. The Mall Road Traders Association had filed a petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking a ban on protest rallies on Mall Road, as protests affected their businesses badly. The petition said that due to protests at Mall Road on a daily basis especially on Fridays, traffic remained choked on Mall Road causing a loss of millions of rupees to traders. On Monday, the Punjab home secretary told the LHC, in a written reply, that with approval of the CM, an ordinance banning rallies on Mall Road was in effect from July 1.
