LHC reserves decision on plea challenging Khadija Shah’s detention

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday reserved its decision on a plea challenging the 30-day detention order of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporter and fashion designer Khadija Shah.

Justice Ali Baqar Najafi reserved the verdict after hearing a plea filed by petitioner Jehanzeb Amin, husband of Khadija Shah, challenging the detention order of his wife with a request to the court to restrain the quarters concerned from removing or even transferring the detainee from the jurisdiction of Lahore or from within the jurisdiction of this court.

LHC reserved the decision after detailed arguments of Shah’s counsel as well as the law officer, who on different occasions failed to satisfy the court in justifying some aspects of her detention, were concluded.

During the hearing, the petitioner’s – Khadija’s husband Jahanzeb Amin – counsel advocate Sameer Khosa raised several questions over the illegalities committed in implicating the designer in multiple FIRs, her arrest and even her 30-day detention, which came through an order issued under the 3-MPO to maintain law and order in Lahore.

Earlier on Wednesday, the incarcerated PTI activist and fashion designer Khadija Shah expressed her wish to contest the next general election.

“I want to contest the next election, but the government has challenged my bail,” Ms Shah told the judge of an anti-terrorism court attending the hearing of the Askari Tower attack case on a video link from Kot Lakhpat jail.

Khadija Shah was put under preventive detention following an order issued on 17-Nov-2023 by the deputy commissioner under the MPO.

On Nov 15, an anti-terrorism court granted her bail in the fourth and last case of the May 9 protests filed against her.

Shah was arrested in cases of attacks on the Lahore corps commander’s house, Askari Tower and torching police vehicles near Rahat bakery in the cantonment.