LHC adjourns petition seeking to strip Nawaz of 'Sir' title

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) adjourned on Tuesday a petition seeking to strip former prime minister Nawaz Sharif of the title of ‘Sir’ until July 18, ARY News reported.

A bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Mamoonur Rasheed put off the petition filed by Javed Iqbal Jafree after a federal law officer submitted comments on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the cabinet division.

The cabinet division stated in its reply that the British Queen had given the then president Farooq Leghari and prime minister Nawaz Sharif the title of “Sir” as a goodwill gesture back in 1997.

Reciprocating the gesture, the Pakistani government conferred the country’s highest civil award Nishan-e-Pakistan on her and Nishan-e-Imtiaz on her spouse.

At the previous hearing, the federal law officer had contended that the petitioner approached the court against Mr Sharif over the award of the title after a period of 17 years. “The petition is non-maintainable and therefore, liable to be dismissed,” he added.

Towards the end of the hearing, the bench directed the state counsel to come up the procedure for the award of such title and adjourned the hearing.

The petitioner had earlier stated that the British Queen had given the title of Sir to the former premier on the golden jubilee of Pakistan in 1997. Mr Sharif could not use this title as he had not sought parliament’s nod before accepting it, he added.

He, therefore, pleaded with that the former premier be stopped from using this title.