The Lahore High Court (LHC) Monday decided to hear the petitions against the transfer of former Punjab Police chief Capt (retd) Shoaib Dastgir and for the removal of Lahore CCPO (Capital City Police Officer) Umer Sheikh, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

In the case of the petition moved by Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan of PML-N on the former Punjab IGP’s transfer, Chief Justice Muhammad Khan overruled the objection raised by the registrar’s office conditionally. The court would decide whether the petitioner was an affected party or not, he observed.

On the other hand, the LHC accepted for hearing another application, seeking the removal of the Lahore police chief over his statement against the motorway gang-rape victim. The move came as the chief justice overruled the objections raised by the registrar’s office.

As the chief justice directed to fix the petition filed by Malik, the chief justice remarked that he would a pass judgment according to the powers he had under the Constitution. “I am a person who remains in his crease. I do not act beyond my limits,” he added.

He passed these orders as Additional Advocate General Malik Abdul Aziz Awan could not satisfy the court through his arguments on the transfer issue.

Similarly, the court set aside the objection regarding the maintainability of a petition calling for the CCPO’s removal after rejecting the additional advocate general’s request to declare it unmaintainable.

He argued that Sheikh was posted as per law as transfers and posting was a right of the government, adding that the petitioner wasn’t an affected party.

However, Awan wasn’t able to satisfy the court in his matter too like that of the former IGP’s transfer.

Sheikh’s comments about the motorway gang-rape have got attention both in national and international media as he had blamed her for the horrific incident, saying that she shouldn’t have travelled without a male family member during the night.

He also suggested that the woman thought it was France where she could move freely any time of the day or night without any safety concerns.