Unconstitutional: Civil servant’s appointment as court registrar challenged

Petitioner argues that such an appointment violates the separation of executive and judiciary

PESHAWAR: Appointing bureaucrats as registrar and additional registrar of the high court was in violation of the law and the Constitution.

Hence, a notification issued on January 27, 2017, allowing civil servants to serve as registrars and additional registrars should be voided and termed unconstitutional.

This was argued before a two-judge bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC), comprising justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Muhammad Ayub, as they accepted a petition filed by a lawyer Ali Azim Afridi.



Afridi had challenged the appointment of Muhammad Saleem, a basic pay scale (BPS) grade-20 officer as the registrar and BPS-19 officer Zakaullah Khattak as the additional registrar by the government.

The petitioner contended that appointing civil servants on the post was illegal since they violate principles of separation of the executive and the judiciary enshrined under the Constitution.

Afridi added that the registrar and the additional registrar are supposed to appointed by the high court administration on merit, by promoting a district and sessions judge and additional sessions judge, on merit.

"A civil servant cannot be appointed as a registrar and additional registrar of the high court," Afridi argued in court as he claimed, "It is a violation of the Peshawar High Ministerial Establishment (appointment and Conditions of Service) Rules of 1989, which were published in the Official Gazette on January 27, 2017."



He added that the purpose of the rule was to keep the executive separate from the judiciary — something which is also emphasized by the 1973 constitution of the country to maintain an independent judiciary free of any influence of the executive.

He listed the PHC chief justice through the principal staff officer, administrative committee of the high court through the registrar, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government through the law secretary, Supreme Judicial Council through its secretary, registrar and additional registrar as the respondents in the petition.

Admitting the petition, the PHC directed the registrar, the additional registrar, and the administrative committee of the PHC to submit replies to the questions raised in the petition at the next hearing of the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2018.