Plea challenging defence ministry’s application form: LHC seeks reply from federal govt

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court Wednesday sought a reply from the federal government on a petition challenging a column of “sect” mentioned in the application form for the vacancies in defence ministry.

Advocate Samra Malik invoked the jurisdiction of the high court through a public interest petition pleading that the defence ministry advertised the vacancies in all provinces through National Testing Service (NTS). She contended that the application form in its column 15 required the candidates to mention their sect in addition to the column 14 of religion. She said the respondents made all the columns in the form mandatory to be filled by the candidates. The lawyer argued before the court that the state under Article 33 of the Constitution was duty bound to discourage any kind of sectarian prejudices among its citizens.

She said the respondents by issuing the impugned application form refused their duty guaranteed under the Constitution. The petitioner asked the court to declare the requirement to mention the sect for the candidates applying for the vacancies in the ministry of defence unconstitutional and in violation of fundamental rights of the citizens. As an interim relief, she urged the court to restrain the respondents from rejecting any application form wherein the column of the sect was left blank by any candidate. Justice Jawad Hassan heard initial contention of the petitioner and issued a notice to the federal government for submission of a reply within a fortnight. The defence and religious affairs secretaries and the NTS have also been made respondents in the petition.