LAHORE: A Lahore High Court division bench on Tuesday suspended a judgment of a single bench and restored the appointment of Lt Gen Muhammad Munir Afsar, a serving army officer, as the chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).

The bench, comprising Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal and Justice Ahmad Nadeem Arshad, passed the interim stay order on an intra-court appeal (ICA) filed by the federal government.

The bench issued a notice to a citizen, Ashba Kamran, who was the petitioner before the single bench, which set aside the appointment of Nadra’s chief.

An additional attorney general appeared before the division bench on behalf of the federal government, requesting the court to set aside the single bench order.

Division bench suspends single-bench ruling that declared the appointment unlawful

In his initial arguments, the law officer argued that the government was competent to undertake rule-making exercise under the mandate of Section 44 of the Nadra Ordinance, 2000, which included the power to amend the rules.

He said the appointment of the chairman had been made under Rule-7A of the Nadra (Appoi­n­t­m­ent and Emoluments of Chairman and Members) Rules, 2020, and when discretion was exercised, there was no requirement of issuing a public advertisement or to undertake competitive recruitment process.

He said the single bench ignored facts and the laws in passing the impugned decision.

After reinstating the appointment of the Nadra chairman, the division bench adjourned the hearing of the appeal for a date to be fixed later by the registrar’s office.

A single bench comprising Justice Asim Hafeez had on Sept 6 declared unlawful the appointment of Lt Gen Afsar as Nadra chairman.

In his judgment, Justice Hafeez observed that a non-advertised and competitive deficient appointment was contrary to the mandate of Article 18 of the Constitution.

He maintained that resorting to mechanism or making of direct appointment without qualification-based evaluation and determining relative suitability, was impermissible and any appointment made in disregard of qualifications was tantamount to abuse/excessive exercise of delegated authority.

The judge had rejected the defence taken by the government that leakage of ‘sensitive’ data and ‘national interest’ led to the direct appointment of a serving army officer.

The judge observed that mere leakage of data was no ground to abandon qualification-based and meritorious appointments.

Justice Hafeez also brushed aside another argument of the government that on two different occasions officer(s) in service were appointed as Nadra chairman.

The judge ruled that an illegality committed previously would not validate the appointment under reference, not authorised by and in terms of the statute.

Petitioner Ms Kamran had challenged the appointment initially made by the caretaker setup on Oct 2, 2023, and consequently retained by the elected government through a new notification issued on March 28, 2024.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2024