Tax tribunal petition: LHC judge refuses to hear petition

The petition challenges the appointment of Shahid Jamil Khan and Chaudhry Munir Sadiq.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday refused to hear a petition seeking disqualification of two members of the Inland Revenue Appellate Tribunal, who are allegedly not qualified for the job and had undertaken to tender resignations. The petition moved by Advocate Waheed Shahzad Butt, challenges appointment of Shahid Jamil Khan and Chaudhry Munir Sadiq. When the hearing resumed on Thursday, Justice Nasir Saeed said he could not hear the case because of personal reasons. The judge then returned the file to LHC chief justice to be fixed before another bench. The petitioner had submitted that in accordance with Sub-Section (3) of Section 130 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 and Article 193 of the Constitution, a person may be appointed as judicial member of the Appellate Tribunal, if qualified to be a judge of the High Court. He said a person could not be appointed a judge of a high court unless he was a citizen of Pakistan, or less than forty five years of age. The petitioner pointed out that the Supreme Court on November 6, 2012 had ruled that the respondents’ appointments were illegal and the respondents, themselves, had agreed to tender resignations to avoid a strong order. He said the respondents had later withdrawn their resignation.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2013.