Lawyer wants to know ‘money trail’ of LHC’s chief justice

ISLAMABAD: Taking a clue from the top court’s recent exercise to find money trails in some high profile cases, a lawyer has sought details of the ‘money trail’ of Lahore High Court’ Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah from 2004 when he got loan of Rs350 million and allegedly got it written off as the managing director of Mansoor Textile Mills and Aaj Textiles.

A lawyer, Anwar Dar, through his counsel Col (Retd) Inamul Rahiem approached the Islamabad High Court seeking account details for the time when he got the loan till it was written off.

He named the chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, United Bank president, journalist Umer Cheema and the secretary of the Punjab Bar Council as respondents.

The case has been fixed for hearing before Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb for July 13 (today). The counsel argued that principle of equality before law should apply equally to the judges of the superior courts since loans had been provided to them from the public exchequer and if, instead of returning the loan, they had it written off by any means, then they do not deserve to hold the office of the constitutional court of the country.

While referring to news report revealing details about the loan and the subsequent action, Rahiem said that he had tried to establish the veracity of the report and in that regard had forwarded a written request on June 15 to the LHC registrar under the Right to Access of Information Act. However, he received no response.

Source: The Express Tribune