PHC puts its registrar on notice in forgery case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court Abbottabad Bench on Tuesday put on notice own registrar to submit a reply in a writ petition seeking removal of a civil judge, who allegedly committed forgery by tampering with her experience certificate.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Afsar Shah and Justice Syed Muhammad Attique Shah issued notice to registrar. The court issued the notice in a writ petition filed by a lawyer Muhammad Babar Shafi, form Abbottabad through his lawyer Tipu Muhammad Sultan.

The petitioner claimed that a civil judge Sadia Haroon from Abbottabad appeared in the examination of additional sessions judges held in year 2015. It was claimed that when the exams date was announced, she tampered with her Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council certificate as an advocate from May 4, 2009 and changed it to May 27, 2007 to make her length of practice eight years. It was a pre-requisite to sit in the exam.

The petitioner stated the said forgery and cheating was caught by the Administrative Committee/Selection Board of the high court, including the then chief justice. The Administrative Committee/Selection Board of the high court remarked that she was enrolled by the KP Bar Council as an advocate on 04/05/2009. The body said she tampered [with] her KP Bar Council's certificate by adding from 27/05/2007 onwards.

The petitioner stated the act of the respondent judge was a criminal offence for which the punishment given in Pakistan Penal Code was seven years imprisonment. He claimed in the petition that the respondent judge was then appointed a civil judge/judicial magistrate and was performing her duties which, he said, seemed to be a reward of such criminal activity.

The petitioner prayed that the respondent judge was involved in a criminal offence by committing forgery and hence she should be suspended on immediate basis and removed from service.