Contempt of court: Notices issued to secretary defence, senior CAA officials

IHC orders officials to submit reply in 10 days.

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Friday issued notices to the defence secretary and senior Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) officials in connection with a contempt of court case seeking up-gradation of two CAA officials.

Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi issued notice to the Defence Secretary Lt-Gen (retd) Alam Khattak, director general (DG) CAA, Aviation Division secretary, and the CAA human resources chief with directions to submit a reply within 10 days.

Two CAA officials, Zafar Iqbal and Syed Muhammad Farhan, have gone to court against the respondents for not implementing earlier court orders. Iqbal and Farhan – both supervisors in grade II – have requested the court to initiate contempt proceedings against the respondents and award suitable punishment for defying court orders.

The petitioners through their counsel Raja Saifur Rehman said despite clear orders of the high court, the respondents kept lingering the matter of up-gradation of the petitioners and did not take any concrete steps to resolve the issue.

The present contempt petition is filed for the implementation of an earlier court judgment, Rehman said, adding that the IHC decision was challenged before the apex court and the appeal filed by the department was dismissed. A review petition was filed by the department and met with the same fate, he added.

“The respondents were thus bound to upgrade them from PG4 to PG5 instead of violating the judgment of both the superior courts,” Rehman stated.

The petitioners are not only disappointed but also aggrieved by DG CAA’s refusal to implement court directions and orders in petitions, he maintained, adding that more or less 150 employees were upgraded except for the petitioners.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^th, 2015.