The Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Justice Shahid Jamil on Tuesday snubbed model Sophia Mirza and her lawyers for attempting to ban business tycoon Umar Farooq Zahoor from appearing in Pakistani media to defend allegations against him by his former wife.
It is pertinent to mention that the couple divorced over 14 years ago and since then they have been engaged in a legal war for the custody of their 14-year-old twins named Zainab Umar and Zuneirah Umar while both are living with their father in Dubai.
During the third hearing, Justice Shahid Jamil told Sophia Mirza that there will be consequences for her if she continues to needlessly interfere in the court procedures.
While in the last hearing, the judge had asked Sophia Mirza to avoid interfering in the court procedures in the presence of her counsel, and at the present hearing, the honourable judge issued a warning to both Sophia Mirza and her lawyer, Chaudhary Adnan Faiz Kalaar, of dismissing their petition with costs.
At the very outset of the hearing, Justice Shahid Jamil asked the counsel for Khushbakht Mirza (known as Sophia Mirza in the film industry) if he had to assist the Court in determining which provision of law is violated by PEMRA by airing content about Umar Farooq Zahoor.
The judge also read out the order passed on the last date of hearing and asked the council where the complaint was filed before PEMRA. However, instead of placing the required document before the court, the council gave the judge material extracted from a Google search, over which the judge expressed his displeasure and told the counsel he was not listening properly as he had been told to provide the copy of the complaint filed before PEMRA. Upon this, the counsel handed over a few printed pages to the Honorable Judge.
The honourable Judge expressed his annoyance over the casual manner of handing over documents in the court instead of filing them through the proper filing procedure. The lawyer accepted that he couldn’t file the documents in the proper manner due to a paucity of time.
When Khushbakht Mirza tried to interfere, the judge snubbed her and told her to stay quiet or sit down. “Its court of law doesn’t make a mockery of it,” said the honourable judge.
The judge told the counsel that the court was giving him 3–4 days to “give proper assistance to the court on the next date of hearing or I will dismiss your petition with costs”.
During the last hearing. the LHC rejected a petition filed by actress and model Sophia Mirza to ban media appearances of her ex-husband.
The former model had applied to the Lahore High Court that, through the Pakistan Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), directions should be issued to all TV channels to place a ban on Umar Farooq Zahoor. The couple divorced over 14 years ago, and since then they have been engaged in a legal war for the custody of their twins, Zainab Umar and Zuneirah Umar, both 14 years old, who live with their father in Dubai.