An Additional District and Sessions judge asked the Lahore CCPO and the Civil Lines and Qilla Gujjar Singh Station House Officers on Monday, to file their replies by April 5 to the application for the registration of a First Information Report against Punjab Law Minister Rana Sana Ullah and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MPAs for holding a rally on the Mall Road.
Judge Shahida Saeed was hearing a petition filed by Muneer Ahmad requesting that action be taken against the police for not registering an FIR against the PML-N leaders.
The petitioner submitted that the Punjab government had imposed Section 144 on the Mall Road prohibiting political parties from holding any rallies. The PML-N leadership took out a rally on the Mall on March 29. The petitioner’s counsel Azhar Siddique, pleaded that a few days ago the Civil Lines police station SHO registered an FIR against the Pakistan Awami Tehreek when its activists took out a rally on the Mall Road. However, when the PML-N’s law minister and other MPAs rallied on March 29 on the same road, the SHO refused to register a case against them. Azhar said the ruling party activists were spared because of their political clout. He requested the court to order the CCPO and the SHOs concerned to register an FIR against the PML-N leaders who violated the law. After hearing the arguments, the court directed that replies to the applications be filed and that the SHOs appear personally before the court on the next hearing.
