Court fumes at officials for not presenting Hamza on last hearing

An accountability court in Lahore on Tuesday expressed its anger over the officials’ failure to present imprisoned PML-N leader Hamza Shehbaz on the previous hearing and wrongly giving the impression that it was the accused who had refused to appear in person, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The court observed that law should be equal for everyone but it seemed there was no rule with facilities being provided to some inmates and not to others.

Whose responsibility was it to present the accused before hearing, said the judge who was hearing the Ramzan Sugar Mills reference. He told the Punjab additional home secretary to implement the law available in the country.

He had to formulate rules which would be applicable to everyone, said the accountability court judge and deferred further action on the show-cause notices issued during the previous hearing while adjourning the hearing till November 17.

The accountability court judge had issued show-cause notices to the jail authorities, police and other relevant officials after PML-N leader Hamza Shehbaz could not appear before the court for the previous hearing amid a controversy. 

Earlier, Hamza explained why he could not attend the previous hearing, saying he wanted to tell the court what kind of treatment he facing in the prison. 

Without naming Prime Minister Imran Khan, Hamza said it all started when a person during a speech warned that he would not spare anyone.

Everyone knew that he had a chronic backache but they were hell-bent him to bring him to the court in an armoured vehicle, he added.

According to Hamza, he waited there for over one hour and urged the prison officials to transport him in the vehicle previously used for the purpose, but they didn’t.   

Meanwhile, PML-N Deputy General Secretary Attaullah Tarar said no prisoner could refuse to appear before a court, adding that the old armoured vehicle was brought for Hamza only after Imran issued the threats.

Talking to media persons outside the court, Tarar said the vehicle was a security threat and told Imran that he was a coward who had not spent a day in jail.

He said a federal minister had a big tongue like his long hair and warned of consequences if he did not stop using abusive language about women, adding that Imran would responsible for that.

Police had been turned into a PTI wing and were busy in arresting political personalities, Tarar maintained.

Earlier, PML-N Spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb, in a statement, had said that Imran had arrested Shehbaz Sharif out of sheer fear. The PML-N president’s health was being worsened on the prime minister’s orders, she added.

“Mr Imran lives in the fool’s paradise. The people know everything,” Marriyum remarked.