LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday directed the federal government to submit Toshakhana records from 1947 to 2001 in a week.
A two-member bench, comprising Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan and Justice Raza Qureshi, gave the directive while hearing the government’s intra-court petition challenging the LHC’s single bench order to release the records of the state gift depository from 1990 to 2001.
Earlier today, the federal government had challenged the LHC’s orders to make public the complete record of Toshakhana gifts received by public office-holders from 1990 to 2001. The federal government moved a petition challenging last month’s orders of a single LHC bench through the additional attorney general (AAG).
Today’s hearing
During today’s hearing, the court asked AAG about the grounds for the government’s plea.
At this, the lawyer informed the court that the bench had ordered to make public the names of individuals who gave the gifts.
“The government itself released the Toshakhana records from 2002 and onwards,” he said.
However, he added, the names of those who gave the gifts were not made public to avoid impacting foreign relations.
The AAG further said that the government had uploaded all the details on the official website but wanted relief to the extent of revealing the names.
At this, Justice Qureshi asked if those people were declaring what they had been gifted or not.
“We are also bound to declare it if anyone gives us a gift,” Justice Bilal remarked.
The AAG said that if anyone is representing a state then he is supposed to declare the gift. He said that the government wasn’t trying to hide the records but the data before 2002 was not computerised and verified.
Later, the court sought records from 1947 to 2001, while issuing notice to the petitioner of the initial case seeking the Toshakhana records, for next Monday.
On March 22, a single bench of LHC had ordered the release of the Toshakhana records from 1990 to 2001, despite opposition from the government.
The federal government had objected to sharing the source of the gifts and said it would challenge the verdict.
