LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday directed the Punjab chief secretary to decide within two months a matter of district attorneys/law officers working in various administrative departments, and seeking executive allowance.

Justice Muzammil Akhtar Shabbir issued the direction, referring a petition filed by Raj Maqsood and other law officers to the chief secretary.

Earlier, petitioners’ counsel Shoaib Saleem argued that a policy of awarding executive allowance to various civil servants was approved by the cabinet and then notified by the Punjab governor.

He said a policy matter could only be reviewed by the high court under Article 199 of the Constitution.

On the other hand, an assistant advocate general opposed the petition, saying the matter related to terms and conditions of the civil servants and court had no jurisdiction to hear the same.

The petitioners had contended that they qualified competitive exam of the Punjab Public Service Commission (BS-17&18) and had been working as assistant/deputy district attorneys in all districts of the province.

The petitioners submitted that they had been rendering services on the pattern of the law officers of the office of advocate general of Punjab. However, they said, the government granted executive allowance (1.5 times of monthly basic pay) to all officers in the same rank working in the Services and General Administration Department, but they (petitioners) had been denied the facility in a discriminatory manner.

MEESHA’S PLEA: A judicial magistrate on Tuesday sought a reply from actor-cum-singer Ali Zafar on an application of singer Meesha Shafi seeking exemption from personal appearance in a case under cyber crime law by the former on charges of running a malicious campaign against him on social media.

A counsel for Shafi argued before the court that his client permanently lived in Canada with her husband and children.

He said appearance on each hearing was not feasible for his client. He also sought a day-to-day hearing in the case.

The magistrate issued notice to Zafar and sought his reply to the application by Jan 7.

The FIA had lodged the FIR under section 20 of the Pakistan Electronic Crime Act and section 109 of Pakistan Penal Code against nine persons allegedly for running a smear campaign against the complainant on social media.

The agency in its challan (investigation report) said the investigation established that all the suspects including Shafi posted serious/direct allegations and defamatory /derogatory content on social media against the complainant.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2021