ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui on Friday imposed a fine on a lawyer for filing a ‘frivolous’ petition.

The lawyer in his petition had challenged the judicial policy and electoral system of the country and sought court verdict against last year’s general elections.

This is the second time since January this year that advocate Riaz Hanif Rahi has been fined for filing ‘frivolous’ petition which according to the judges was nothing but to waste the court’s time.

Earlier in January, IHC Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui had imposed Rs100,000 fine on advocate Rahi for filing a petition for withdrawal of security from former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

In the recent petition, advocate Rahi requested the court to declare some sections of National Judicial Policy as ultra vires. He also requested the court to declare May 2013 General Elections as illegal as these were held under a faulty electoral system.

The lawyer was also seeking compensation from the government for filing the petition in which such matter of ‘public interest’ has been raised.

This time IHC Justice Athar Minallah took lenient view and did not impose heavy fine on the lawyer and directed him to deposit Rs10,000 as fine and dismissed the petition on first hearing.

Published in Dawn, September 6th , 2014