ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday disposed of a petition seeking to set aside a notification for the appointment of Hanif Abassi, terming it as infructuous after he resigned as special assistant to prime minister.

Former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has challenged his appointment.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah resumed hearing on the petition, but the court was informed that Abbasi has resigned from the post of special assistant.

His counsel produced the copy of resignation before the court.

Rashid challenged the appointment of Abbasi since the latter was convicted in ephedrine case in 2018 by the Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) court and sentenced him for life imprisonment.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) had suspended the sentence in 2019.

Rashid’s petitioned that the LHC had suspended the sentence but the conviction was still intact and being a convict he was not qualified for holding the office of the SAPM.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif after assuming the office appointed Hanif Abassi as his special assistant.

IHC on May 9 asked the PM to re-consider his decision of appointing him as SAPM.

On June 1, Hanif Abassi sent his resignation to the PM and the Cabinet Division denotified him the following day.

Meanwhile, IHC hearing the petition of Rashid seeking protection in the cases registered in connection with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) long march restrained police from arresting Rashid.

Chief Justice Athar Minallah during the proceedings asked the interior secretary for the details of the cases against Sheikh Rashid.

Justice Minallah questioned that whether Sheikh Rashid has been de-notified as Member of Parliament? To which Sheikh Rashid answered that he was still member of the parliament as he had not been de-notified as yet.

Sheikh Rashid told the court that he was granted bail in four cases and now one more case had been registered against him.

He argued that cases were being registered against him on daily basis.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2022