ISLAMABAD: A former medical superintendent on Saturday pressed contempt charges before the Supreme Court against Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar for allegedly flouting earlier court directions.

Dr Iftikhar Ahmad Ghumman, who served as the medical superintendent of the Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital in Lahore, has accused the Punjab administration of flouting the Feb 4, 2019 directions of the Supreme Court in which it had disposed of a case moved by the provincial government since it had not initiated any inquiry against him.

The petitioner contended he had cancelled certain appointments in 2009 being made on the instance of a local political figure. Consequently, he was subjected to torture and faced a number of inquiries after which he was removed from the post eventually along with other staff members.

Feeling aggrieved, Dr Ghumman approached the Punjab Service Tribunal, Lahore, which ordered that he be reinstated through a judgement on Sept 11, 2014.

Petitioner tells SC he’s facing irreparable loss due to Punjab government’s ‘illegal’ act

The petitioner has named the Punjab chief minister, Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid, Chief Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar and others as respondents.

Now Dr Ghumman claimed that by ordering initiation of a fresh inquiry against him, the Punjab government was guilty of flouting, disobeying and disrespecting the authority of the apex court which already had disposed of the case.

Thus the provincial government falls within the purview of Article 204 of the Constitution, which deals with the contempt of the court.

The petitioner argued that the fresh inquiry was ordered against him when he furnished his pension case on Nov 12 last year and also filed a separate representation for the sanction of pension and regularisation of the gap period from Sept 2, 2010 to Oct 18, 2017. But his case was not sanctioned for want of regularisation of the gap period in his service.

The petitioner contended that he was facing irreparable loss and injury due to illegal and contemptuous act on behalf of the respondents particularly due to issuance of the fresh inquiry, which has been issued in disregard of the apex court orders.

The petitioner requested the court to order the respondents that in the interest of the justice they should immediately withdraw the orders of the inquiry against him.

There cannot be any bigger example of the highhandedness of the respondents, which were not acting in accordance with the law, the petitioner stated, adding that he was being dragged into litigation unnecessarily and since the conduct of the respondents was contrary to what the court had earlier directed, immediate indulgence of the apex court was the need of the time.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2019