ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court of Pakistan Thursday dismissed three time-barred petitions and referred the matter to the Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Khyber for action.
A three-member SC bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed heard the case regarding filing of time-barred petitions in different cases of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government employees.
During the course of proceedings, the court directed the Chief Secretary KP to take action against officials responsible for delay in filing appeals and submit report. He observed that it seemed there was a deliberate delay in filing appeals.
The Additional Advocate General KP said that a timely appeal had been filed in another case of same nature. He said that the legal point was same in both cases so the two cases should be clubbed. Addressing the Additional Advocate General, the Chief Justice asked him to mention a law where it stated that a time-barred petition could be heard due to same legal point in another petition. The Additional Advocate General said that the second appeal was only 18 days time-barred. Upon this, the Chief Justice said that it did not matter if the delay was one day or one year.
Also, the Supreme Court on Thursday suspended the Balochistan High Court's suo motu notice and also dismissed the notice of suspension of Assistant Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner.
A two-member SC bench comprising Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah conducted the preliminary hearing of the appeal against the order of the Balochistan High Court. The order of Balochistan High Court was challenged by AC and DC.
During the course of proceedings, Advocate Aman Ullah Kunrani counsel for the petitioner said that the family of the man killed in the grenade attack did not name the police or the FC officials in the First Information Report (FIR). He said that heirs were protesting against the police behaviour. He said that Advocate Kamran Murtaza apprised the Chief Justice of BHC about the incident on WhatsApp.
The Chief Justice BHC taking notice on WhatsApp suspended Assistant Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner Quetta, he added. He said that the BHC in its suo moto notice also ordered FC to register a case. He pleaded the court to suspend BHC order to the extent of Assistant Commissioner.
Justice Ijaz said that the whole order would be suspended. Later, hearing of the case was adjourned till date in office.