March, 19 2005	Saturday	08 Safar 1426

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ISLAMABAD, March 18: Former Supreme Court registrar M.A. Farooqi on Friday moved the Supreme Court against his sacking by Chief Justice of Pakistan Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, a court source told Dawn. The source said the appeal had been filed under Rule 11 of the Supreme Court Appointment of Officer and Servant and Terms and Conditions of Services in which the mover pleaded to set aside the orders of the chief justice under which he was dismissed from the post. Rule 11, which deals with appeals by the court officers, says: “When any penalty is imposed by the registrar, an appeal shall lie from his order to the chief justice and where any penalty is imposed by the chief justice, an appeal shall lie from his order to a bench of three available senior most judges of the apex court”. The chief justice had removed M.A. Farooqi on February 21 on charges of misappropriating Rs20 million received by the court as fee in different cases. He has already returned Rs10.5 million.

Farooqi denied the allegation of misappropriation and asserted that the amount he had drawn was commission and he was legally entitled to receive it.

He specifically stated that the amount in question could never be regarded as court fee, as court fee and commission were two different terms and carried different meanings. He also said that the amount drawn by him was commission in the nature of compensation for the faithful discharge of his duties.

During the tenure of former chief justice, Farooqi quoted, a similar complaint had been made by Saghir Ahmed Qureshi, on which the former chief justice verbally sought his (Farooqi) explanation and accepted his interpretation of commission.

Farooqi said he was never examined or associated with the audit proceedings on the basis of which he was removed and thus he was deprived of opportunity to explain his position.