February 2, 2006	Thursday	Muharram 3, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 1: The chairman and four members of the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) on Wednesday challenged Supreme Court registrar’s refusal to entertain their constitutional petition contesting an ordinance, which had curtailed their service tenure from five to three years.

On Tuesday the Registrar had returned a joint petition of the FPSC chairman, Lt-Gen (retd) Jamshaid Gulzar Kiani and its four members — Gul Hanif, Justice (retd) Abdur Rehman Khan, Javed Akram and Tariq Saeed Haroon — with an objection that the president and the prime minister enjoyed protection under Article 248 of the Constitution and therefore could not be impleaded as respondents in the petition.

The appellants’ counsel Advocate Mohammad Akram Sheikh submitted the appeal to the apex court under Rule 3 of Order 5 read with Rule 6 of the Supreme Court Rules and Orders, 1980, against the order of the registrar. Such appeals, under the rule is always heard by a senior judge of the Supreme Court in his chamber, they said.

They described the registrar’s refusal to entertain their petition “contrary to law and without lawful authority” and stated that “office objection amounted to over reaching the authority of the Supreme Court in pre-judging the matter”.

The objection is also misconceived as the SC earlier had interpreted that designated functionaries under Article 248 could be made respondents against whom allegations of malafides of fact had been levelled.

The federal government through secretaries Establishment Division and the Ministry of Law are also respondents in the appeal.

Citing a 1990 case of Amanullah and others versus Federation of Pakistan, the petitioners contended that both the president and the prime minister were earlier impleaded as respondents.

In any case the office of the apex court cannot stifle a case in its infancy without permitting this court to decide the same in accordance with law and the decisions rendered by the Supreme Court from time to time, they submitted.

They prayed that this court should graciously accept this appeal, set aside the impugned order of the registrar and the petition for leave to appeal be directed to be registered and placed before this court for hearing.

The FPSC chairman had challenged a presidential ordinance curtailing the service tenure of the commission’s chairman and members from five to three years. The appellants have made President Gen Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, secretaries of Law and Establishment and the Federation as respondents in the case.

Earlier the appellants had moved the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench, challenging the recent amendment in the statute.

Justice Mian Hamid Farooq of the high court had directed the petitioner to file an amended petition, citing the same ground that the president and the prime minister could not be made respondents in any petition.