LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday issued a notice to the Establishment Division secretary on a petition seeking contempt proceedings against him for not fulfilling his undertaking about the allocation of a five per cent job quota for minorities in the armed forces.

Justice Shams Mirza heard the petition filed by a member of the Christian community, Faiza Mushtaq Gill.

The petitioner’s counsel, Zeeshan Awan, submitted that the court had in March disposed of a writ petition in light of an undertaking by Establishment Division Secretary Inamullah Khan that the Recruitment Policy 2014 would be implemented with all prescribed quotas, including for minorities.

He said the respondent failed to implement his undertaking, as reflected in a recent advertisement for the recruitment of women as captains in the Pakistan Army.

The counsel pleaded that the failure of the respondent to implement the settled laws and the policy of quotas for minorities in all the recruitments amounted to a sheer violation of the LHC order and was sufficient for the initiation of contempt of court proceedings.

He asked the court to prosecute and convict Mr Khan for contempt and also order him to implement the undertaking.

After hearing the arguments of the counsel, the judge issued a notice to the establishment division secretary seeking his reply by Jan 27.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2022