LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday accepted an unconditional apology tendered by Punjab Chief Secretary Jawad Rafiq in a case against exercise of judicial powers by the executive officers in defiance of a stay order.

The chief secretary, along with his private counsel Dr Khalid Ranjha and some senior bureaucrats, appeared before the court of Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan.

The chief justice accepted the unconditional apology tendered by the chief secretary and withdrew the show cause notice earlier issued to him.

The CJ, however, allowed time to Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Momin Agha, Special Secretary (home) Muhammad Iqbal and Deputy Secretary (judicial) Imran Munir to submit their replies to the show cause notices for contempt proceedings.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Khan observed that the executive officers continued to use judicial powers despite the notification issued to this effect was suspended by the court. He regretted there had been negligence in conveying the court decision to the relevant officers.

The chief justice regretted that on one hand a foreign national, on his/her arrival in Pakistan, was expected to have knowledge of the law of the land, while on the other the court was being persuaded to believe that the bureaucracy was unaware of the law.

The CJ adjourned further hearing for a week and observed that the matter would be decided after reviewing the explanations to be submitted by the officers.

Tanvir Abdullah had filed the petition through Barrister Momin Malik, pleading that under the Constitution and prevalent law the executive and the judiciary were two separate entities and they couldn’t interfere into each other’s affairs.

However, the Punjab government, on June 17, granted powers of Class-I magistrate to the commissioners and deputy commissioners in violation of law.

The counsel argued that the impugned notification was ultra vires of articles 2 & 9 of the Constitution as well as of section 14-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) 1898.

He said as per judgments of the superior courts the executive couldn’t exercise judicial powers.

Hearing another case, the chief justice sought a reply from the Punjab government on a petition challenging transfers of Faisalabad Electric Supply Company’s (Fesco) chief executive officer Shafiqur Rehman and its chief engineer Umar Lodhi, made allegedly because of political influence.

The petitioner alleged that both officers were transferred at the behest of a local MPA.

Chief Justice Khan expressed his concern over the situation and observed how an officer could serve honestly when there was political intervention in such matters.

The CJ sought replies from the respondents by Wednesday (today).

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2020