A DIVISION Bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday summoned the Minister of Information Technology Anushay Rehman to come into the court with a written statement on the next date of hearing about the government’s stance on giving access to YouTube or otherwise in the country.

A division bench of the LHC headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah issued this order seeing no reply from the government as earlier he had asked for. The judge asked the law officer, representing the government that YouTube was banned in the country and government was shying away from giving some clear statement about it. He said there was 95 percent educational material on the website and it was a matter of constitutional right of expression.

Appearing on the behalf of petitioner, advocate Yaser Hamdani submitted that he could not understand where the country was heading towards by taking such steps of banning access to the information. The judge asked him that he wanted to give only one chance and let us wait until next week for the reply of the minister. At this, Hamdani said, ‘there will be no point in this order if the minister again goes for an Umrah.’ There was laughter in the courtroom over this argument of Hamdani. It is pertinent to mention here that on the previous hearing, the court was informed that the minister had gone for Umrah.

The judge asked the law officer to telephonically ask the minister to confirm about her stance.

judicial allowance: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday sought progress report about a summary pending before the Punjab Chief Minister for giving judicial allowance to the employees of the court.

An assistant advocate general stated before the court that Acting Advocate General Mustafa Ramday had been holding meetings with authorities of Law and Finance Departments besides the chief minister as well on the subject matter. However, he said, Mustafa Ramday was going abroad and would return on March 3. He requested the court to adjourn hearing till return of the acting AGP.

Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial accepted the plea and postponed hearing till March 6 and with directions to submit progress report about the summary.

Govt reply: The Lahore High Court Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan on Tuesday gave another opportunity to Ministry of Foreign Affairs to submit a report about the future release of the Pakistani citizens detained at Bagram Theatre Internment Camp, Afghanistan.

A state counsel appeared before the court and sought more time to obtain instructions from the ministry on the matter.

Petitioner’s counsel opposed the request and alleged that the ministry was using delaying tactics. Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan, however, gave another chance to the state counsel with directions to come up with report on March 14. The petition filed by a non-profit law firm for the release and return of 25 Pakistani citizens detained at the Bagram jail by US. It said Pakistani citizens had been detained at Bagram jail without any charge or trial since 2003. It alleged that they were abducted from Pakistan and removed to the infamous US prison in Afghanistan.


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