PHC dismisses five judges from service

Civil judge allowed to tender unconditional resignation from service

PESHAWAR: As PTI’s Imran Khan took oath as the prime minister to build his ‘new Pakistan’, a radical step was taken in Peshawar as well with three additional district and sessions and judges and two civil judges were removed from their service on charges of corruption and misconduct.

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday has removed the judges with immediate effect.

However, the court has accepted an application from one of the civil judges, Johar Ijaz Ali Shah, who wanted to tender unconditional resignation instead of being removed from office.

The disciplinary action against the judges was undertaken by the administrative committee of the PHC after an inquiry and other proceedings were initiated against them under the under the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Government Servant (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules 2011.



Those who were removed from their service included Additional District and Session Judges Naeem Iqbal, Aurangzeb Khan and Shakeelur Rehman. Judges who were suspended include civil judges Saima Irfan and Shah.

“Very credible evidence of delinquency and misconduct on the part of the accused officers have been established,” said the administrative committee in its report.

“Hence, an inquiry against them has been dispensed with and show-cause notices were issued to the accused.”

The report added that it had been tentatively decided to impose a penalty on the accused which included removal from service with effect under the rules.

“The competent authority is pleased to hold that keeping the accused officers in the judicial service of the country is highly uncalled for and undesirable and impose on them the major penalty of removing from services as envisaged under rule 4 (1) the K-P Government Servant (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules 2011,” it said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18^th, 2018.