Larger bench to take up law officer’s removal

Ahmed Awais approached LHC on January 26

LAHORE:

Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti on Thursday constituted a larger bench for hearing a petition filed by Ahmad Awais against his removal as advocate general of Punjab.

Justice Ali Baqar Najafi will head the bench whereas Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh, Justice Muzamil Akhtar Shabir, Justice Rasaal Hassan Syed and Justice Asim Hafeez will be its members.

Awais had approached the LHC on January 26 against his removal.

His petition was heard by Justice Muzamil Akhtar Shabir the same day.

However Justice Shabir recused from hearing the matter and sent the petition to the LHC CJ for fixing it before another bench. The petition was fixed before Justice Shahid Karim with the approval of the chief justice but no proceedings took place due to paucity of time.

Later, on the insistence of the petitioner's counsel, after the permission of chief justice, the matter was fixed before Justice Asim Hafeez who heard the matter and issued notices to the parties for February 1 after hearing initial arguments on January 27.

Justice Asim Hafeez held that the matter pertained to Class G of the notification issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The judge observed that the CJ had formed a full bench to hear identical petitions and sent the petition to the CJ with a request to fix it before the full bench.

On receiving Awais's plea, the chief justice clubbed all the petitions together and formed a larger bench headed by Justice Shujaat Ali Khan after dissolving the full bench.

But, after Justice Shujaat Ali Khan excused from heading the bench, the chief justice reconstituted the larger bench headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2023.