LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday directed a federal government’s counsel to ensure submission of reply on behalf of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to a petition against him for using the title of “Sir” given by the British Queen.

Barrister Javed Iqbal Jafree had filed the petition contending that the British Queen had given the title of “Sir” to Nawaz Sharif being prime minister on the golden jubilee of Pakistan in 1997.

He said the then Indian prime minister had refused to accept the same title offered to him by the queen. He pleaded that Mr Sharif could not use the title as he had not sought approval from parliament before accepting it. No gazette notification was issued to the effect, he added.

He asked the court to stop the prime minister from using the title of “Sir.”

During Tuesday’s hearing, Standing Counsel Nadeem Anjum appeared before the court and sought time to submit a reply of the prime minister.

Being irked by the repeated adjournment requests, Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh directed the government’s counsel to persuade the prime minister to file his reply before the court passes any strict order.

Justice Sheikh adjourned hearing till Dec 19 and directed the counsel to come up with the prime minister’s reply to the questions raised in the petition.

Objection overruled: Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday overruled an objection of the registrar’s office on a petition seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for their alleged corrupt practices.

The office had objected to the maintainability of the petition, citing constitutional immunity enjoyed by the offices of the PM and CM. Justice Mirza took up the petition as “objection-case”.

Counsel for the petitioner argued that the objection raised by the registrar’s office was unjustified. He asked the judge to overrule the objection and admit the petition for hearing.

The judge accepted the plea and directed the office to fix hearing of the petition before an appropriate bench.

In his petition, Faisal Naseer alleged that corruption was rampant in all government institutions without any accountability. He said incompetent people had been recruited in the departments.

He pleaded the prime minister and his brother, who was Punjab chief minister, were involved in corruption and liable to be disqualified.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2016