Journalist Gul Bukhari has claimed that Lahore High Court Chief (LHC) Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti has manually referred the case of halting police action at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s Lahore residence, Zaman Park, to LHC Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh.
In a tweet, she claimed that the algorithm selects judges through a random mechanism when a petition is filed in the case management system.
However, a senior court reporter privy to the matter told Naya Daur-TFT that although the algorithm selects a judge through a random mechanism when a petition is filed in the case management system, there is no restriction in law that prohibits referring a case to a specific judge.
On the condition of anonymity, the court reporter said that during today’s hearing at the LHC, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry told Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh that the party has filed a petition seeking protective bail for Imran Khan that might be assigned to him for the hearing. Upon which, the judge said that the case might not be referred to his court, he added.
Meanwhile, Fawad Chaudhry tweeted that the PTI and Punjab police have agreed to meet and discuss how to handle the police operation. The agreed-upon remedy will be presented in court today, he added.
During the hearing today, Fawad said that the police have assured them they will provide security to former prime minister Imran Khan. “We have stepped back from holding a rally in Lahore on Sunday; now we will hold one on Monday,” he announced.
