LAHORE: A petition has been filed against Prime Minister Imran Khan in the Lahore High Court seeking his disqualification for allegedly committing contempt of court.

Advocates Muhammed Faizan Naseer Chouhan and Tahir Maqsoor Butt have accused Imran Khan of making anti-judiciary speeches.

The plaintiffs claimed that the prime minister had criticized performance of the judiciary in a speech and tried to influence the sub judice cases against the opposition leaders. The summary of the application said that he had lambasted the judges of the high court and their decision, which was contempt of court. The advocates said the Supreme Court had issued a contempt of court notice against Imran Khan in 2013 as well.

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The petitioners said that if Pakistan Muslim League-N leaders Nehal Hashmi and Talal Chaudhry were given punishment for anti-judiciary statements then why not Imran Khan.

“Khan should be disqualified from the parliament for contempt of court,” said the plea.

It should be noted that, on Nov 18, Imran Khan had requested the chief justice to provide justice to liberate the country. He had asked the judiciary to build people’s trust on it.

“The impression of separate legal systems for rich and poor should be eradicated,” he had pleaded.

Addressing a ceremony in Islamabad on Nov 20, Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khan Khosa had responded to the comments made by Prime Minister Imran Khan in which he mentioned that there was an impression of separate legal systems for rich and poor which should be eradicated.

“I don’t want to speak up exactly about the case that PM Khan talked about, but we disqualified two prime ministers, convicted one PM and verdict regarding former army chief’s case is going to be announced (soon),” Asif Khosa had said adding that only a couple of powerful people would be there in cases with the judiciary.

“Don’t taunt us of powerful people. Today’s judiciary should not be compared with the judiciary of pre-2009. We did exemplary work in less resources. We never sought money from anybody for reforms in judiciary. We have finished criminal backlog of last 25 years,” he had said.

He had said the PM himself had decided to let him (Nawaz) go abroad. The high court had made only a partial decision, he said.

The top justice had said those criticizing judges should be vigilant. No one was powerful before them, but the law, he added. He had said the PM should also be careful while choosing words for judges.