Lahore High Court has rejected Bahria Town’s plea against the land fraud case for the third time. Malik Riaz and his son are under trial in the case. The property tycoon’s lawyers were seeking a stay order against the proceeding of the case in an anti-corruption court. The plea was reject for the third time in last four weeks, where Lahore High Court (LHC) permitted the anti-corruption court to continue the trail in accordance with the law. Previously, Zahid Hussain Bokhari and Barrister Gohar Ali argued the case from Bahria Town.
The case was taken afresh by Justice Ibadur Rehman Lodhi and Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah on 16th July, 2012. Dr Abdul Basit represented Bahria Town this time and argued that the earlier orders issued by the court were in contradiction with the law. According to him, the Anti-Corruption Court was directed by the Chairman NAB to handover the case to NAB but the anti-corruption court filed the case in LHC instead. Bahria Town’s lawyer believes that it was an unusual case where the provincial organization approached the judiciary against a federal department. He believes that it was unlawful on part of the Anti-Corruption Court to resume hearing on the case and issue warrants for Malik Riaz and his son, as LHC had issued stay orders till the final adjunction and had instructed Anti-Corruption Establishment to seal the related records.
LHC remarked that the Anti-Corruption Court was not restricted to start the proceedings in any season and the earlier verdicts issued by Lahore High Court were in accordance with the law. Dr. Abdul Basit however argued that Bahria Town has filed a request to Chief Justice Lahore High Court to transfer his client’s case to any other court and that application is still pending. In response to this, Sadaqat Ali Khan, the Prosecutor General Punjab representing Anti-Corruption Establishment argued that no litigant can claim remedy in the matter that has already been decided by the court.
Sadaqat Ali Khan argued that Dr Basit has come up with the same request as that made by Zahid Hussain Bokhari to stop the trial court proceeding against Bahria Town under a different section. Khan said that the Bahria Town is filling different petition through different lawyers under different section of Civil Procedure Code or Criminal Procedure Code but with only one intention to save the property tycoon and his son. He further added that the Bahria Town management is attempting to cheat the court, which can lead to initiate contempt charges against them.
