IHC restores Mayor Aziz

Overturns interior ministry’s notice to suspend him for 90 days

ISLAMABAD: Just days after he had been suspended for three months through a government notification for alleged corruption and abuse of power, Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz was restored to his position on Thursday.

The suspension was overturned by a single-member bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani, as it heard a plea filed by Aziz.

The mayor had challenged his suspension notice, issued by the federal interior ministry on Sunday, contending that the notice was issued without first hearing him.

During Thursday’s hearing, the Local Government Commission (LGC) Secretary Ali Sufyan appeared before the court along with his counsel. The LGC’s counsel told the court that Mayor Aziz had been suspended on charges of corruption in an inter-city bus terminal contract.

Further, on part of the federal government, the Islamabad Advocate General (AG) Niyazullah Niyazi appeared before the bench. He contended that it was the federal government who had decided to bar the mayor from performing his duties based on the recommendations forwarded by the LGC.

He stated that six of the nine members of the commission who had attended the meeting had decided to send the reference against the mayor to the federal government.

The reference had been brought against the mayor by the IMC Chief Metropolitan Officer Syed Shafaq, who is also the secretary of the Islamabad Capital City Administration (ICTA), in a meeting of the LGC last week. Shafaq alleged that the mayor was responsible for irregularities by awarding a contract for the inter-city bus service to a company of his choice. Therefore, the reference suggested suspending the mayor for three months and to launch a probe against him.

During Thursday’s hearing, however, Aziz’s lawyer Kashif Malik argued that the IHC, in the past, has raised questions on the conduct of the LGC secretary.

He went on to add that the corruption charges levelled against the mayor had impacted his esteem and that of his family.

The counsel further argued that the oversight commission had decided to take action against Aziz without even listening to him.

After all parties concluded their arguments, the IHC revoked the federal government’s notification to suspend the mayor for three-months and restored him.

Mayor talk

Later, while talking to the media after the court proceedings, Aziz thanked the court for restoring him and for providing him with justice.

He termed the court’s decision 'a defeat of the malice' the government has against him.

The mayor further disclosed that the reference against him was introduced in the LGC meeting after he was asked to leave it.

“They (government) could not prove to the court that I was present there when the decision [to suspend me] was taken and the court became certain that I was barred from my duties without even being heard,” Aziz added. He added that the ill-will of the government against him was conspicuous from the fact that the notification for his suspension was issued on a public holiday.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2020.