MUZAFFARABAD, July 10: The AJK High Court on Wednesday dismissed two petitions challenging the appointment of Basharat Ahmed Sheikh as Ehtesab Bureau chairman and subsequently as acting ombudsman of Azad Kashmir.

The petitions filed by a lawyer, Syed Mujahid Hussain Naqvi, and five former heads and 12 serving officials of the Mirpur Municipal Corporation, were heard by the full bench of the court, comprising Justice Reaz Akhtar Chaudhry, Justice Sardar Mohammad Nawaz Khan and Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal.

The bench unanimously rejected all the points raised by the petitioners, observing that they were not bona fide relaters.

The bench held that the plea by the counsel for Mr Sheikh that the petitions had been filed to counter the action taken by him as a Supreme Court judge and subsequently as Ehtesab Bureau chairman was of fundamental nature.

The bench rejected the plea that Mr Sheikh could not be appointed EB chairman because he was an SC judge and he could not be appointed against any post for two years after his retirement.

Such bar was only in respect of the former judges of the high court and it could not be applied to the former judges of the apex court, it said. Such a bar could only be made applicable to former SC judges by amending the constitution, which had not been done, it said.

An objection raised in the petitions that Mr Sheikh legally ceased to hold the office of EB chairman when he accepted the post of ombudsman was also dismissed.

The bench held that Mr Sheikh was appointed as acting ombudsman.

Similarly, the bench rejected the point raised in the petitions that Mr Sheikh was not re-appointed as EB chairman when the Ehtesab Bureau Ordinance 2000, under which his appointment was made, was repealed and replaced by Ehtesab Bureau Act, 2001.

If a law is repealed and re-enacted, appointments made under the repealed law are deemed to have been made under the re-promulgated law, the bench said. In this connection the bench referred to Section 56(c) of the AJK Interim Constitution and Sections 6 and 24 of the General Clauses Act.

The bench also turned down the plea that Mr Sheikh was a non Muslim and he could not be appointed as EB chairman or ombudsman in a Muslim state. It held that the declaration of the respondent that he was a Muslim was sufficient.