Court moved against appointment of civil servant as registrar & additional registrar

PESHAWAR: The appointment of civil servant as registrar and additional registrar was challenged in the Peshawar High Court on Monday.

A Peshawar based lawyer, Ali Azim Afridi, on Monday filed writ petition in the high court in which he challenged the appointment of Muhammad Saleem Khan (BPS-20) as registrar and Zakaullah Khattak (BPS-19) as additional registrar of the Peshawar High Court.

Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court through principal staff officer, administrative committee of the high court through registrar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through Secretary Law, Supreme Judicial Council through its secretary, registrar and additional registrar were made parties to the petition.

The petitioner claimed that appointment of the civil servant of the provincial or federal government as registrar and additional registrar had been made in violation of the newly amended law called “The Peshawar High Ministerial Establishment (Appointment and Conditions of Service) Rules of 1989 Published in the official Gazette on January 27, 2017.

It was submitted that the Constitution evenly emphasized on separation of judiciary from executive as such independence of judiciary was one of the salient features of the Constitution.

It was stated that previously the appointments of registrar and additional registrar were made in the establishment of the high court by transfer of a district

and sessions judge and additional sessions judge, respectively or by promotion of merit.

In grounds of the petition, the petitioner stated that the impugned notification issued on January 27, 2017 allowing the civil servants to serve as registrar and additional registrar (admin) be declared void and unconstitutional.