ISLAMABAD, Dec 10: The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to hear a government plea against appointment of Mohammad Tariq Malik as Chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and referred the matter back to the Islamabad High Court with directives to decide it preferably within a month.

The government had challenged an interim order of the IHC suspending the termination of the service of the Nadra chief. It said the order had been issued on Dec 3 on a petition filed the same day without fulfilling the formality of issuing notice to the attorney general.

The bench of the apex court which heard briefly the two sides before disposing of the petition was headed by Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani and comprised Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed. The case will come up for hearing before a single-judge bench of the IHC on Wednesday.

Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, the counsel for Mr Malik, said his client had been appointed for a three-year term under Section 3(5) of the Nadra Ordinance.

Those employed for tenure postings cannot be sacked in the manner the government has followed and the procedure through which the chairman can be removed was described in Section 3(12) of the ordinance.

He said concrete evidence was available to prove that Mr Malik had not been terminated for lack of qualification but the reason had something to do with the ongoing verification of voters’ thumb impression.

Mohammad Akram Sheikh, representing the federation, said the chairman was a contract employee. Under the terms of the contract he could be removed on one month’s notice or on payment of salary for the period, he said.

He asked the court to stop the Nadra chairman from issuing media statements.

Mr Ahsan said it was the interior minister who was making public statements on the issue and had claimed in parliament that Mr Malik had been removed because he did not fulfil the required qualification for the post.

The federation had argued in its petition that Section 3(7) of the Nadra Ordinance had been violated by not appointing as chairman an eminent professional of known integrity and competence with substantial experience in the field of computer science, engineering, statistics, demography, law, business management, finance, accounting, economics, civil or military administration, or registration.