MUZAFFARABAD, May 7 The Azad Jammu and Kashmir High Court disposed of a petition on Friday, challenging the appointment of Justice Reaz Akhtar Chaudhry as Chief Justice of the AJK Supreme Court, “as he stood removed from this office under the report of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), rendering the office of top judge vacant”.

The petition was filed by advocate Karam Dad Khan on March 27, 2007, but the Supreme Court had confiscated the same from the HC registrar's office on the following day. However, on April 15, this year, the apex court's acting CJ, Manzoor Hussain Gillani, sent the case back to the HC.

In his decision, after preliminary hearing, HC CJ Ghulam Mustafa Mughal held that since Justice Reaz Akhtar stood removed from the office of CJ from the day when SJC had made recommendations to the chairman of AJK Council (Prime Minister of Pakistan) to this effect, there was no point in issuing a writ of quo warranto.