LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif today (Monday) submitted a contempt of court petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) against six officials for barring him from flying abroad despite the court’s order.
According to details, the petition has named the secretary of the Interior Ministry, director general of the FIA, director FIA Punjab, and the deputy director, inspector and sub-inspector immigration at Lahore airport.
In his petition, the PML-N President states that the LHC order allowed him to leave the country one-time was announced on May 7 in front of the deputy attorney general and two Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials.
The petition adds that the “excuse for not permitting the complainant to proceed abroad was lame and false because a comprehensive mechanism of updating the Integrated Border Management System and placing or removal of names in the stop-lists 24/7 round the clock, is in vogue.”
Sharif’s counsel adds that the “instant case is a classic example of high handedness, utter disregard of rule of law, blatant defiance and deliberate disobedience, defeating and frustrating an order of this Hon’ble Court through contumacious and contemptuous conduct by way of resorting to false and frivolous pretexts for which a separate contempt petition is being filed.”
On May 8, Shehbaz was not allowed to fly to the United Kingdom from Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport. At the time, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) immigration officials had told him that he could not board the flight as his name was on the stop list — Provisional National Identification List (PNIL).
A day ago on May 7, the LHC had given him conditional permission through an interim order to go abroad for medical treatment. After Shehbaz was not allowed to fly, the PML-N had said court orders were violated and vowed to file a contempt of court petition.
