Chief Justice Aalia Neelum issued the direction during a hearing on an issue arising from a contempt of court petition.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Rao Abdul Kareem appeared before the court on its orders.

The chief justice expressed displeasure over FIRs being printed in small fonts, observing that the documents were difficult to read.

She remarked that the problem was being seen in case after case.

“While police are saving paper, we are losing our eyesight,” the chief justice remarked.

She observed that fitting the narration of three pages onto a single page would obviously make the font unreadable. The CJ directed the IGP to ensure that FIRs across Punjab were printed in a uniform, larger font.

The IGP told the court that a letter had already been sent to the chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board regarding an increase in the font size.

The CJ sought a detailed report from the IGP on the steps taken in this regard and adjourned the hearing until Sept 29.

She also sought a separate report on a contempt of court petition filed by a citizen against the police.

On Wednesday, during hearing of a petition filed by a citizen, Superintendent of Police (SP) Abdullah appeared before the court on behalf of the Chung police.

When Justice Neelum asked SP Abdullah to read the FIR aloud, he was unable to properly read or narrate its contents.

“Why is the FIR not readable? I cannot understand what has been written in it,” the chief justice remarked.

She also took a sarcastic jab at the handwriting, observing that it looked like “flies” and quipping: “Even the size of the flies is bigger [than this].”

A student of Aitchison College and later a medical graduate of Lahore’s prestigious King Edward Medical College, he had set his sights on medicine and was doing his house job at Mayo Hospital when fate intervened in the most unexpected way.

A day before the 1990 general elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), his father, retired Colonel Muhammad Naqi Khan, then minister for health, died in a tragic road accident while campaigning.

The family elders soon decided that his only son should carry forward the political legacy. At 26, and with little political experience, Dr Naqi was persuaded to take the plunge.

He contested the 1990 election on a Muslim Conference ticket but lost. The setback, however, proved only a temporary detour. The assembly was dissolved within a year, paving the way for fresh elections, in which the young doctor returned to the fray — and this time emerged victorious.

That was the beginning of a parliamentary career that would span more than three decades.

In those days, a first-time legislator was not expected to walk straight into the cabinet. The convention was to start at the bottom and work one’s way up. Dr Naqi did precisely that, serving as parliamentary secretary for health and planning and development from 1991 to 1996.

He won again in 1996, but with the PPP forming the government, he spent the next five years on the opposition benches. He lost the 2001 election but was subsequently elected by assembly members to the AJK Council, where he served until 2006.

Born on Jan 19, 1964, Dr Naqi comes from a prominent political, social and educational family of Poonch whose public-service tradition stretches back several generations.

At the heart of that legacy stands his grandfather, Col Khan Muhammad Khan, popularly remembered as Khan Sahib and Baba-e-Poonch.

A soldier, politician, social reformer and educationist, Khan Muhammad Khan served in the British Indian Army during the First World War and was awarded the Indian Distinguished Service Medal. After retiring as a subedar major, he served as police inspector of Poonch before turning his energies to social welfare and public life.

Education was one of his abiding passions.

In an era when formal education remained beyond the reach of many people, particularly in rural areas of Poonch, Khan Sahib devised the “Muthi Bhar Atta” — or “handful of flour” — scheme. Households contributed a handful of flour every week, which was sold, with the proceeds channelled into educational activities.

In 1934, he founded the Sudhan Educational Conference to encourage both religious and modern education. The same year, he was elected to the Tehsil Bagh and Sudhnoti seat of the Praja Sabha, the first legislature of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. He retained the seat until 1946, when he voluntarily stepped aside in favour of Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, who would later become the first AJK president.

The educational initiative also spawned scholarships for talented students and helped establish educational and religious institutions. During the 1947 Kashmir conflict, Khan Sahib served as chairman of the War Council and played a prominent role in the movement that led to the establishment of the territory now administered as AJK.

Dr Naqi was born four years after his grandfather’s death, the youngest of Col Naqi Khan’s four children, with three elder sisters.

His father had followed the family tradition into public life, serving in the army before entering AJK politics. From 1975 to 1977, Col Naqi served as senior adviser to the AJK prime minister. In 1985, he contested and won the election from Sudhnoti and became the minister for health and food in 1988. His death in 1990 unexpectedly pushed his son into the political arena.

Dr Naqi returned to the assembly in 2006 for a third term and served as minister for health and population welfare. He later held the portfolios of education and information technology. He was elected for a fourth term in 2011 on a PML-N ticket and remained on the opposition benches until 2016.

The 2016 election brought him back for a fifth assembly term. He subsequently served as minister for health and also held the finance and planning and development portfolios. Over the years, he thus occupied a range of responsibilities spanning health, education, information technology, finance and development.

After losing the 2021 election, Dr Naqi was set to stage a comeback in the 2026 polls. However, elections in seven constituencies of Poonch division, including his own, were put on hold because of the law and order situation.

Luck had something else in store for him.

As the government formation process was completed on the basis of 46 seats — excluding the seven constituencies of Poonch and Sudhnoti — the top two constitutional offices also went to representatives from other divisions, with the speaker coming from Mirpur and the prime minister from Muzaffarabad.

This led to growing calls for the presidency to go to a representative of Poonch division. Dr Naqi, with his long parliamentary experience and roots in the region, soon emerged as the name around which those calls coalesced.

His nomination came at a time when the presidency had been vacant since the death of Barrister Sultan Mahmood in January. The office was held in an acting capacity first by Legislative Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar and later by his successor, Chaudhry Tariq Farooq. After securing 31 votes against the opposition PPP’s 14, Dr Naqi ascended to the presidency, completing an unlikely journey from medicine to the region’s top constitutional office.

Dr Naqi’s personal life, too, has remained closely intertwined with politics and public service.

He married Ghulam Dastagir Khan’s daughter, linking him to the family of the prominent Gujranwala politician who served several times as an MNA and federal minister.

His brother-in-law, Engr Khurram Dastagir Khan, also served as an MNA and federal minister. His wife, a master’s degree holder in English literature, is a homemaker. The couple has three sons, who were educated in the United Kingdom and are employed in the private sector.

One of his elder sisters founded an elite school in Rawalpindi in 1988 that has since grown into a chain of educational institutions.

Away from politics, however, Dr Naqi is described by friends as a man who keeps pomp and show at arm’s length. He has little taste for protocol and is generally described by those close to him as soft-spoken, approachable and unfailingly courteous.

Even those who have crossed swords with him politically or criticised him publicly have often found him reluctant to respond in kind. Friends say he has generally preferred courtesy, patience and reason to confrontation — and that the smile rarely leaves his face.

That temperament will now accompany him into a constitutional office that demands a different kind of politics from the rough-and-tumble of electoral contests.

His election also has a particular resonance for Poonch, a region that has produced generations of political leaders, soldiers, educationists and social reformers and has contributed considerably to the political and social development of AJK.

For a family whose public life stretches from Khan Sahib’s educational campaigns and role in the 1947 struggle to Col Naqi Khan’s political career, Dr Naqi’s elevation to the presidency marks another turn of the wheel.

And for the doctor who once entered politics almost by accident, after setting out to build a career in medicine, his election as president marks an unlikely culmination — at least for now — of a journey that began with a family tragedy more than three decades ago.

Uzma and Noreen were taken into custody on Monday for 30 days under the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance 1960 (MPO) just a day after their sister Aleema Khan was detained. The arrests of Imran’s sisters and other party leaders come ahead of the PTI’s Sept 27 countrywide protest and march to Islamabad.

On Thursday, Justice Abher Gul Khan took up a petition challenging Uzma and Noreen’s detention, filed by the latter’s daughter Sakeena Niazi.

Appearing as their counsel, Barrister Taimur Malik and Advocate Rana Mudassir argued that both women were “nonpolitical” and had been detained despite having no justification for their detention.

They informed the court that Uzma had already been acquitted in a case registered against her, and a copy of the trial court’s decision declaring her innocent was on the case record.

The lawyers also presented copies of two orders recently passed by the LHC’s Multan bench setting aside preventive detention of as many persons affiliated with PTI.

The counsel requested the court to immediately suspend the detention notifications for Uzma and Noreen.

Justice Abher, however, said the court would first seek a report from the relevant parties and hear their position before deciding the request for suspension.

The court then issued notices to the respondents and sought their replies on the petition.

The respondents included the Lahore deputy commissioner (DC) and capital city police officer (CCPO), the Home Department secretary, and the Kot Lakhpat jail superintendent.

Hearing a petition against the detention of Aleema and her driver on Tuesday, Justice Abher had sought arguments on the plea’s maintainability. The court is set to resume the hearing on Thursday.

In the capital, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had summoned the senior superintendent of police (operations) to appear on Thursday in a petition concerning alleged harassment of PTI leaders and raids on their homes.

IG warns against violating law

Separately, Punjab Inspector General (IG) Rao Abdul Kareem warned that anyone violating the law on Sept 27 would be dealt with strictly.

The Punjab government has already imposed a ban on gatherings across the province for 13 days and prohibited inciting people to unlawful assembly. A similar ban under Section 144 has been enforced in Islamabad too.

It has also requested deployment of Rangers in Rawalpindi, Attock, Jhelum and Mianwali districts until Oct 5, as well as sought downgrade of mobile and internet services at specific locations in Rawalpindi and Attock on Sept 27.

Speaking to reporters after appearing before the LHC on Thursday, IG Kareem said he wanted to convey a clear message that no one would be allowed to take the law into their hands.

Responding to a query, he said permission was required for holding a peaceful protest and pointed out that restrictions under Section 144 were currently imposed in the province.

Asked whether any application had been submitted seeking permission for a protest, the police chief said he was not aware of any such request and that the DC concerned could better answer the question.

The Punjab IG maintained that no one would be subjected to discriminatory treatment and that citizens would be dealt with without distinction as per the law.

The PTI has called for a nationwide protest on Sept 27 to demand Imran’s release from jail and mobilise people for the supremacy of the Constitution.

The government has warned against marching towards the federal capital or blocking roads there, with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi cautioning PTI “not to enter a dead-end street” and hinting at a “permanent solution” to such protests.

Hearing a plea against the march, the IHC on September 14 ruled that no political party or its leadership has the “lawful right to occupy public roads, highways, interchanges, toll plazas and buildings in Islamabad”.

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Sunday contended that strikes, sit-ins, long marches and road closures could cause an estimated Rs120 billion loss to the economy each day.

Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), which had launched a march towards Islamabad against the petroleum levy, postponed the move at the request of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, pending a meeting with him.

Dr Naqi secured 32 votes in the election held at the AJK Legislative Assembly’s Secretariat, while PPP’s Chaudhry Latif Akbar secured 13 votes. Polling began at 11am and concluded at 1pm.

Under the AJK Consti­tution, the president is elected by the members of the Legislative Asse­mbly by a majority of the total membership.

Dr Naqi has previously served as AJK health minister. He has also held the portfolios of education and information technology. Dr Naqi was set to contest the 2026 polls. However, elections in seven constituencies of Poonch division, including his own, were put on hold due to the law and order situation in the region.

According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated Dr Naqi on his victory and conveyed his best wishes.

“Dr Najeeb Naqi’s election reflects the confidence of the people of AJK,” PM Shehbaz was quoted as saying. The premier, in his message to Dr Naqi, expressed hope that he would fulfil his responsibilities effectively and play a constructive role in the development, prosperity and welfare of the people of AJK.

PM Shehbaz also reaffirmed that the federal government will extend its full cooperation to AJK, the statement added.

The office of the AJK president has remained vacant since January this year following the death of Barrister Sultan Mahmood. Previously, then-Legislative Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar was serving as the acting president. The role was then assumed by incumbent Legislative Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Tariq Farooq after being elected speaker on August 25.

‘Breeze of fresh air’

Following the announcement of the results at the legislative assembly session on Thursday, Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin was the first to take the floor and congratulate Dr Naqi.

However, he reiterated the PPP’s allegations that the recent elections held in AJK had been rigged and regretted that the new government was taking decisions based on “political vengeance”.

Former prime minister Raja Farooq Haider then took the floor and dismissed Yasin’s allegations. Speaker Chaudhry Tariq Farooq suggested the allegations should be left for another occasion, saying that the day’s speeches should focus on the presidential election. He offered the floor to any other opposition lawmaker wishing to speak.

However, when no one else showed interest, he gave the floor to Leader of the House and Prime Minister Iftikhar Gillani.

Gillani congratulated Dr Naqi, his party’s central leadership and the people of Poonch on his election. Describing Naqi as a “noble person,” he said his election had sent a “breeze of fresh air” to Poonch division.

Gillani called for strengthening the legislature and said the government was committed to working through the assembly.

He also denied allegations that any package approved by the previous PPP government was shelved or overturned. He said the cabinet only had decided to review the education package after objections were raised over some of its provisions.

He assured the opposition that its due share and role would never be undermined.

Before adjourning the session, Speaker Farooq also greeted Dr Naqi and expressed hope that with him in office, AJK would see an improved governance system.