Rioting cases: LHC rejects PTI plea to stop JIT from working
LAHORE (WEB News) – The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday turned down a petition filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), seeking an immediate order to stop a joint investigation team (JIT) from probe in cases against the party leaders over alleged murder of Ali Bilal alias Zille Shah, attack on police officials and riots outside the Zaman Park residence of the party chief last month. LHC’s two-member bench headed by Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh heard the petition and issued notices to the Punjab government, Home Department and other parties in the case. The high court has also directed the parties to submit their replies and adjourned the hearing till April 10. Earlier in the day, as many as 11 PTI leaders, including Imran Khan and Fawad Chaudhry, had filed a petition through their lawyers Sikandar Zulqarnain and Zafar Iqbal Mangan. The PTI bigwigs argued that police had registered ten baseless and fake cases against them, adding that the Punjab home secretary made the JIT on the directives of the provincial government. They said they were totally unaware of details of the cases registered against them. They contended that they had evidence and witnesses in the case related to death of Zille Shah and pleaded the high court to void the notification regarding constitution of the investigation team.