CJP unhappy over holiday on Quaid’s birth anniversary

LAHORE: Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar Tuesday lambasted the government officials for observing an official holiday on Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s birth anniversary instead of going to work.

The top judge remarked that “work, work, and only work” was an important principle of Jinnah and we, as a nation, should adhere to his saying to make our country prosperous. “No political leader including Nehru could match the stature of my leader (Quaid-i-Azam),” the chief justice said with pride. “We remember him, who put everything at stake tocreate this country, by taking a day-off,” he regretted and added that working on his birth anniversary would constitute a tribute to him.

The remarks were made as CJ Nisar heard a case regarding the legal status of private universities in Pakistan in order to let them present criteria to the court for granting charters to educational institutes. The federal health and law ministers were summoned for the hearing.

“Call the ministers, tell them to work here [instead of] observing a holiday on Quaid-e-Azam Day,” the top judge remarked. Meanwhile, the chief justice directed the Punjab law minister and health minister to appear in person on the next hearing to explain position on the legitimacy of private universities.

Earlier, a law officer told the court that the government had constituted a committee to deliberate on the legal value of the private universities. He said a meeting of the committee was already scheduled for Dec 28 on the matter.

The chief justice observed that the formation of committees would not serve any purpose as they took years to come up with reports. And the court did not have time to wait for the outcome of the committees, said the chief justice and added, “the ministers concerned should be present in the court” on the next hearing.

PILOTS DEGREES: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday gave two days deadline to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to verify degrees of all pilots and cabin crew working under its authority.

A two-member bench, led by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, was hearing a case regarding verification of pilots’ degrees at the apex court’s Lahore registry. As hearing started, the CAA counsel informed the court that many employees’ degrees were no longer legible. At this, the chief justice instructed that those who could not provide legible degrees be removed from their posts.

He pointed out that Multan Board had verified 161, Faisalabad board 89 while Sargodha board had verified 26 degrees out of 70 sent to it. He said the roll numbers on the degrees of five candidates were wrong.

The CJ had taken notice of alleged appointment of pilots holding fake qualifications in January this year. The court, during Monday’s hearing of the case, was told that some pilots were not cooperating with the CAA for re-verification of their degrees. The court will resume hearing on Dec 28.