‘You will have to pay for wasting my time’

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday imposed a fine of Rs 500,000 on a petitioner for wasting court’s time and withdrawing a petition seeking disqualification of former PML-N MPA Khawaja Muhammad Islam for having a fake degree.

A single bench comprising Justice Muhammad Khalid Mehmood Khan passed the order while hearing a petition filed by the petitioner, Ashiq Hussain. Earlier, the petitioner along with his counsel appeared before the court and submitted that he wanted to withdraw petition against the former MPA.

However, the court expressed displeasure over the situation and observed that the petitioner wasted court’s time and later wanted to withdraw the matter after a compromise. The court held that such a fact could not be ignored and imposed a fine of Rs 500,000 on the petitioner for wasting court’s time while disposing of the matter as being withdrawn.

The petitioner through his petition had submitted that the respondent was elected as MPA from PP-72 in 2008 general election. He alleged that the respondent had submitted a fake BA degree to the election commission for contesting elections. He contended that the respondent did not fulfill criteria set in article 62 and 63 of the constitution, therefore, he should be disqualified.

Meanwhile, the court adjourned the hearing of a civil miscellaneous application seeking directions to stop Khawaja Muhammad Islam from contesting coming elections till April 3. Petitioner, Ijaz, filed the application in a pending petition seeking disqualification of Khawaja Islam for having fake degree. The petition in his application alleged that the respondent had a fake degree and plea was pending against him. He said that the respondent wanted to contest elections again. He pleaded to the court for directions to stop him from contesting elections.