LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday sought a reply from the Punjab home secretary on a plea by Amin Ansari, father of Zainab, for public hanging of Imran Ali, convicted for rape-cum-murder of the seven-year-old girl.

Mr Ansari through his counsel Ishtiaq Chaudhry argued that all appeals of the convict had been dismissed by legal forums, including the high court, Supreme Court and president of Pakistan. He said the trial court also issued death warrants of the convict for Oct 17.

He argued that section 22 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 empowered the government to hang a convict publicly. However, he complained that the government was not complying with the law available on the subject.

The petitioner asked the court to order the government to ensure that the convict is hanged publicly to satisfy the requirement of deterrence in society.

A division bench headed by Justice Sardar Shamim Ahmad Khan issued notice to the home secretary for Oct 17.

HELMET RULE: The Lahore High Court ordered the traffic police to enforce its helmet drive for motorcyclists in the whole city and fine the offenders without any discrimination.

Justice Ali Akbar Qureshi passed the direction on a petition moved by a lawyer and also sought record of challans issued to motorcyclists for not wearing helmet.

Advocate Azhar Siddique told the court that accidents had been significantly decreased due to implementation of helmet rule on the bikers.

He said the court previously had ordered the traffic police to enforce the helmet drive on main thoroughfares, including The Mall. The police should be ordered to expand the drive to the entire city now, the lawyer added.

The judge directed the chief traffic officer to enforce the helmet rule on the motorcyclists all over the city and submit details of the challans issued to the offenders so far by Oct 19.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2018