LAHORE, Oct 17: Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed of the Lahore High Court on Friday dismissed the petition of former director general public relations, Punjab, Farrukh Mahmood Shah who had challenged formation of a tribunal to probe alleged illegal election campaign of former Punjab government.

The judge ruled that there was no illegality and infirmity in the formation of the tribunal or giving it additional time to complete the inquiry by the (incumbent) Punjab government. And the inquiry being conducted by the tribunal was legal and valid, he said.

Farrukh Shah submitted that he was appointed media consultant of the Punjab government in December 2007 and was given the additional charge of DGPR in the Department of Information. He said his appointment was on a contract for an initial period of two years and he continued to serve under the new political setup of Mian Shahbaz Sharif.

He claimed that he was subjected to intense pressure to malign and harass the previous government officials, especially Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi. His contract was cancelled in May 2008 when he refused to comply. He added that a roving inquiry was conducted into the payment of advertisement by the Punjab government in 2006-2008.

The Punjab government on July 22 had constituted a three-member inquiry tribunal, comprising AIG police Aftab Sultan, Chartered Accountant Viqar Ahmad Khan and the incumbent DGPR, that was asked to submit its report to the government till Aug 15 regarding the advertisement scam. He contended that the functioning of tribunal had become illegal as it had failed to submit the inquiry report by the deadline.

The Punjab advocate general submitted that the government had extended the last date for filing of report of tribunal till Nov 15 through a notification issued on Sept 17.