Ch Rashid no more Pemra chief

ISLAMABAD: A division bench of Islamabad High Court (IHC) Tuesday set aside the reinstatement orders of the deposed chairman of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) Chaudhry Rashid Ahmed.
The bench, comprising Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and Justice Athar Minallah, accepted an Intra Court Appeal (ICA) of the federal government it had filed against the orders of Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi who restored Ch Rashid Ahmed to his office on May 25.
In a 28-page judgment, the bench has directed the federal government to complete the process for appointment of new chairman in the light of Supreme Court orders.
Earlier, on August 19 the Supreme Court directed the government to appoint chairman Pemra within 30 days.
The fate of Ch Rashid Ahmed had been in the doldrums for almost two years when the federal government first terminated his services on December 15, 2013 and he challenged the termination.
On December 26, 2013 Ch Rashid was restored by an IHC bench. In April 2014 he was again terminated but after a prolonged litigation he was once again restored on May 25, 2015.
This restoration also did not last long and now the IHC bench on Tuesday accepted the federal government’s appeal and Ch Rashid stands terminated.
Additional Attorney General (AAG) Afnan Karim Kundi kept arguing that the initial appointment of Ch Rashid was not made in a legal manner.
Citing a report prepared by secretary interior, the AAG stated that the prime minister was not apprised of certain facts before the appointment of Chaudhry Rashid as chairman.
The AAG claimed that some paragraphs in the summary for the appointment of Chaudhry Rashid were missing.
The AAG told the court that the federal government had already initiated the process for appointment of chairman Pemra in compliance with the apex court orders.
Barrister Wasim Sajjad, legal counsel for Ch Rashid, argued before the court that his client was not aware of any missing paragraphs, as the Establishment Division was the custodian of all the related correspondence.
Chaudhry Rashid was appointed as chairman Pemra for four years by the PPP government on January 26, 2013 and on December 15, 2013 the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government terminated his contract.