High profile: IHC to take up Kazmi, Sheerani cases today

Former religious affairs minister has challenged sentence; Sheerani’s CII appointment has been challenged

ISLAMABAD: Among a number of important cases, the Islamabad High Court will take up Hamid Saeed Kazmi’s petition challenging imprisonment sentence in the Hajj Corruption case, a petition challenging appointment of Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani as the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) chairperson today (Monday).

The IHC will also take up the “dates’ consignment case” involving the head of the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI).



On June 3, Judge Malik Nazir Ahmad of the special court central had awarded six years imprisonment each on two counts to Kazmi, the then DG Hajj, Rao Shakeel, and a former joint secretary Ministry of Religious Affairs, Raja Aftabul Islam, and imposed a fine of approximately Rs147. 4 million each.

In his appeal against the special judge central’s decision of June 3, Kazmi through his counsel Sardar Lateef Khosa said that none of the prosecution witnesses had insinuated him with any malfeasance and his conviction was based on fanciful, arbitrary, capricious and absolutely conjectural hypothesis. He has cited the state as respondent.

The IHC Chief Justice, Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi, will hear the case today.

Sheerani’s case

Separately, in Maulana Sheerani’s appointment case, the deputy attorney general (DAG) Husnain Ibrahim Kazmi will submit a reply.

Justice Aamer Farooq had directed the DAG to seek instructions from federation as to Sheerani’s appointment and submit a reply within 10 days.

The appointment has been challenged at a time when the council is being criticised after it proposed its own women protection bill, recommending “a light beating” for the wife, if she defies the husband.



The bill was drafted after the CII rejected the Punjab’s controversial Protection of Women against Violence Act (PPWA) 2015, terming it “un-Islamic”.

The petitioner, Moeen Hayat Cheema, who taught law at the Lahore University of Management Science (LUMS) and is currently teaching at the Australian National University (ANU), has filed the petition through Barrister Mirza Shahzad Akbar.

He has made Sheerani and President Mamnoon Hussain, through his secretary, respondents in the case. The petition argues that the president appointed Sherani illegally.

The petition states that the CII is a body effectively controlled by the Government, as the power to appoint the members and the chairperson of the CII lies with the president of Pakistan. Furthermore, CII is funded by the government and all salaries of its members are drawn from government funds.

Akbar said that CII was a body controlled by the government, and as Sheerani was already an MNA at the time of his appointment as chairman, he could not have been validly appointed to CII.

It is contended by the petitioner that Sheerani’s appointment was in fact a political move by the PML-N government to appease the JUI-F.

He said that “no consideration was given to the suitability of Sheerani to the post based on merit.”

IUII head’s dates case

Besides, the director general of the ministry of food will submit a reply in connection with a case dealing with a 350kg consignment of Saudi dates.

The head of IIUI had taken the officials of the food ministry to court after they held a consignment of dates at Benazir Bhutto International Airport due to problems with the paperwork.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2016.