Accountability judge stopped from working

Govt given two weeks to reply to plea challenging Rizvi’s appointment.

LAHORE:

A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday restrained an accountability judge, Syed Ali Hassan Rizvi, from doing his job until it decides a petition challenging his reappointment within days of retirement.

The bench of Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry and Justice Mazhar Iqbal Sidhu adjourned for two weeks to give the deputy attorney general and the National Accountability Bureau prosecutor time to file replies to the petition, filed by citizen Muhammad Shahzad.

The petitioner, through counsel Muhammad Ilyas, contended that Rizvi was reappointed as special judge of Accountability Court No 3 in Lahore on October 20, 2010, in violation of Clause 3 of the National Judicial Policy, which barred the appointment of retired judges as presiding officers of special courts. Rizvi reached the age of superannuation on October 8, 2010.

According to a Law Ministry letter defending the appointment, Rizvi was appointed as accountability judge on deputation for a three-year period starting in October 2009, and under Section 5A(3) of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999, a retired judge can continue his assignment until it is complete. It also noted that the LHC had already dismissed a petition challenging his appointment on October 22, 2010.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2011.