11 judges suspension case referred to CJ

LAHORE

Justice Kazim Raza Shamsi of the Lahore High Court on Friday declined to hear identical petitions of 11 judges of subordinate judiciary, challenging their suspension.

Justice Shamsi said as the petitioners have challenged the decision of the LHC administration committee and he was member of that committee; therefore, it is not appropriate for him to take up the matter. He sent the files to LHC chief justice for fixing them before some other appropriate bench.

Previously, Justice Shamsi had fixed March 17 for hearing but due to request for adjournment by one of the petitioners, Justice Shamsi adjourned the matter for March 24.

Through their counsels, the judges submitted in their petitions that they were functioning smoothly till June 28, 2016 when suddenly they were made Officers on Special Duty (OSD), the day when incumbent chief justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah took oath as CJ.

Advocate Tipu Salman Makhdoom, counsel for one of the petitioners Shehzad Aslam, submitted that there never had been any complaint against him and all of his Performance Evaluation Reports (PERs) are excellent.

He said on August 19, 2015, provincial judicial selection board recommended promotions of the civil judges but their promotion was deferred like some other judges. He said the committee was directed to submit its report within three weeks.

The committee instead of submitting its report within three weeks, constituted another sub-committee consisting of five sitting and five retired district and sessions judges. The sub-committee gave its recommendations to hold their promotion and put them under suspension, he said. He added that his client along with others were condemned without being given an opportunity to defend their positions.

The counsels argued that the sub-committee that constitutes five serving and five retired DSJs could not provide recommendations for promotions of judges who never worked under them.

They added that none of these serving or retired DSJs ever worked with their clients, hence they could not make any recommendations about their performance. They said the LHC CJ held a meeting with their clients and other OSD judges and ensured them that in order to confirm the report of the sub-committee, he will get their cases re-checked by various investigative agencies. However, nothing to that effect came out on record.

They prayed the court that all the proceedings and administrative orders passed against their clients be declared illegal and unconstitutional.

airports case: The Lahore High Court on Friday sought a reply from federal government on a petition challenging a decision of outsourcing administration of three airports of the country.A citizen, Mahmood Akhtar Naqvi, filed the petition pleading that the government decided to outsource administration control of Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad airports.

He said the decision of the privatisation of civil aviation and airports was illegal and amounted to jeopardise national security. He pointed out that the employees of the CAA had also been holding protests against the decision.