Bench questions how federal govt filed intra-court appeal after giving NOC for travel
Former Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. PHOTO: BBC
RAWALPINDI:
The case concerning former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed’s request to travel for umrah has entered a highly interesting phase in the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi Bench.
In the intra-court appeal filed against the single bench’s order allowing umrah travel, the federal government found itself trapped in its own stance.
Sheikh Rashid’s counsel, Sardar Abdul Razzaq Advocate, raised objections to the government’s intra-court appeal, terming it non-maintainable, and requested that it be dismissed immediately so the single bench’s order permitting Umrah travel could be implemented.
When the hearing began, the division bench comprising Justice Jawad Hassan and Justice Muhammad Raza Qureshi heard the matter.
Before the bench, Sheikh Rashid’s counsel raised an important legal point, stating that during the single bench hearing, the deputy attorney general and the federal government had raised no objection to Sheikh Rashid’s travel for Umrah.
The deputy attorney general had even stated in court that the government had no objection to the former minister’s travel.
This statement was included in the written order by single bench judge Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan.
Senior judge Justice Jawad Hassan then ordered the single bench’s order to be read out in court. The order clearly stated that the Deputy Attorney General had said the federal government had no objection to Rashid’s Umrah travel, and therefore, permission was granted.
Upon hearing this, Justice Muhammad Raza Qureshi asked the assistant attorney general how the government could file an intra-court appeal after giving such a clear no-objection statement before the single bench.
The assistant attorney general responded that the deputy attorney general was not present in court that day and only he could explain the earlier statement. He then requested an adjournment.
The assistant attorney general further said that Sheikh Rashid had been stopped from travelling under an order of the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC).
