Lahore - Judges, lawyers, doctors and teachers were the subject of important writ petitions filed in or heard by local courts last week. Also, a PTI petition seeking disqualification of Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif was dismissed during the week.
A senior lawyer, AK Dogar approached the Lahore High Court with the plea that judges should be made punctual as their late arrival to courts causes tremendous inconvenience to both litigants and lawyers.
People who have to go to courts agree that at times judges don’t observe their duty hours. They reach late and, it has also been observed, that more often than not they also fail to hear all cases on the cause list for the day.
Morally speaking, judges cannot hold others responsible when they themselves don’t go by the rules of the game. They should sit even after duty hours to be able to give justice to all petitioners.
Another senior lawyer filed a petition in the LHC challenging the appointment of outgoing Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali’s wife as judge of the Federal Shariat Court (FSC). Barrister Javed Iqbal Jafree states that the rules and seniority of sessions judges have been violated in the elevation of Justice Ashraf Jahan Jamali (then district & sessions judge) to the Sindh High Court as additional judge in 2013. She was transferred to the Federal Shariat Court after some months of her elevation to the SHC without the approval of the parliamentary committee on judges’ appointment.
Later, the petitioner says, the President of Pakistan on Sept 1, 2014 extended her one-year tenure as additional judge of the SHC while she was working as judge of the FSC at that time. In another move, he said, Justice Jahan Jamali was repatriated to the SHC as additional judge in October 2014 and was confirmed on Aug 26, 2015. However, the woman judge was again appointed as judge of the FSC on Aug 28, 2015 in violation of Article 203 of the Constitution, Barrister Jafree states.
The lawyer alleges that CJP Jamali used his position for his wife’s appointment as FSC judge and requests the court to set aside the appointment of Justice Jahan Jamali as judge of the FSC for being unconstitutional.
While it is for the court to decide the matter on merit, the petition could not be more ill-timed. Barrister Jafree should have filed it much before - not now when Justice Jamali is retiring on completing his term.
Those who know the working of courts can guess the likely fate of the petition - and the attempt by the senior lawyer to score some points.
Barrister Jafree’s petitions remind one of the writs the late MD Tahir used to file in courts - apparently in public interest. He always took up important issues - and always without proper preparation. The fate of all his petitions was predictable. But he always got good media coverage.
Once while hearing a petition, a judge asked Mr Tahir which article of the Constitution or section of the law had been violated that forced him to approach the court. He replied: “This I don’t know. But, my lord, this should not have happened.” In other words the argument was more moral than legal or constitutional. It was dismissed instantly.
During the week, the LHC heard that many young lawyers are not getting opportunities to earn livelihood because there are others who are advising more than three companies at a time, which is violation of the law. The court was informed that there are about 10,000 companies working without the services of legal advisers, which is a clear violation of law.
Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah ordered the Pakistan Bar Council and the Punjab Bar Council to take action against the lawyers who are advising more than three companies.
The point raised by the former LHCBA secretary is important. But he should not forget that lawyers sitting in assemblies are a bigger problem. They earn huge money in salaries and other benefits and are also deeply involved in legal practice.
For them the legislator’s is not a full time job. At time they can’t appear in a court because they are in assembly session and at times they can’t attend the assembly session because they have to appear in some court.
Justice can’t be done to both the jobs at the same time. Somebody should also invite the attention of legal fraternity to this point and move the relevant quarters to ban legal practice for the lawyer-legislators. This will be a great service to the profession.
Last week, the LHC also heard the petition of two doctors whose services had been terminated because they had taken part in the YDA strikes (which have added to the patients’ miseries in Punjab hospitals). The LHC observed that the government can’t ruin the career of a doctor if he/she goes on strike.
Dr Bilal and Dr Irfan raised the issue of their removal from service before the LHC, arguing that they were given no show cause notice or an opportunity for personal hearing before the drastic action.
The court asked the KEMU vice chancellor to explain on Dec 22 under what law he had terminated the services of the petitioner-doctors.
The legal battle on the future of the four vice chancellors of various universities intensified last week when the Punjab government filed an intra-court appeal against the single judge order that the VCs be removed, and a professor moved a contempt of court application against the secretary, higher education department, for his failure to comply with the LHC orders for their removal.
The appeal filed by the Punjab government contends that the VCs had been appointed on merit and in accordance with section 14 of the amended Public Universities Act. Also, it said, consultation with the higher education commission was not legally mandatory for these appointments. The appointees, it said, were experienced and competent people.
The petition sought suspension of the impugned order till the decision of the appeal.
On the other hand, Professor Dr Aurangezeb Alamgir sought legal action against the secretary, higher education department, for not removing the four VCs, as ordered by the LHC.
The court had ordered that the acting VCs of the Punjab University, Nawaz Sharif University of Engineering and Technology, Multan, Lahore College for Women University and Sargodha University be removed from their posts within seven days. It had also ordered that senior most professors be appointed as acting VCs.
Also in the week, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf failed to get Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif disqualified as the Lahore High Court dismissed as “not maintainable” a petition filed by a Lahore-based party leader. Ejaz Chaudhry said in his petition that the CM had shifted his family’s sugar mills from one district to the other despite the existence of official ban on such a move. By doing so, the petition said, the chief minister had violated his constitutional oath as it amounted to preferring personal interest to his constitutional pledge.
Under Articles 62 and 63, the petition, moved through senior Advocate and former law minister Babar Awan, said the chief minister should be disqualified. The state counsel vehemently opposed the PTI leader’s contention on the plea that the court verdict on which the petition relied had been suspended.
The petitioner’s counsel said if the court doesn’t want to pass any order the petition should be referred to the PA speaker for a reference against the CM.“The court can’t issue such an order,” remarked Justice Ayesha A Malik. However, she said, the petitioner could raise the matter on any other relevant forum.