KARACHI, Dec 30: The Sindh High Court on Thursday issued notices to the defence secretary, the chief of naval staff and other navy officials on the petition of an ex-naval officer challenging his removal from service.

Lieutenant-Commander Mohammed Hanif, who also challenged proceedings against him under the Naval Regulation, 1987, also impleaded Naval Secretary Rear Admiral Khawaja Ghazanfar Hussain, Commander Karachi and PNS Babar commanding officer Captain Azhar Naeem as respondents.

The petitioner submitted that he joined the force on March 10, 1990 as a sub-lieutenant and he had been in charge of Gun-Room Mess of the PNS Bahadur from 2005 to 2009.

He stated that Captain Azhar Naeem who had served in the ISI for three years joined as a training commander in PNS Bahadur on April 14, 2009.

The petitioner submitted that as per rules, all officers took their meals in the ward room, but Captain Naeem started taking his three-time meals from the Gun-Room Mess.

He said that Captain Naeem became annoyed and got him transferred from the Gun-Room Mess through the commanding officer (CO) when he sent a bill of Rs3,170 to the officer for his 15-day meals from the mess.

The petitioner submitted that he moved an application against Azhar Naeem to the authorities concerned on July 3, 2009 after he called him at his office on July 2, 2009 and humiliated him in the presence of junior officials.

He said that he moved another application against the training commander to the CO on Aug 18, 2009, but to no avail.

He said that on Sept 15, the CO on the instigation of Captain Naeem constituted a three-member board of investigation against him to investigate purported irregularities into financial management and accounts, although there was no complaint against him. He said he had also objected to the head and members of the board of the investigation.

He said that the CO issued him a show-cause notice after receiving the inquiry report. He said that he was not given a copy of the inquiry report against him to make a proper reply to the show-cause notice.

The petitioner said that later the CO sent the findings of the board of investigation to the chief of naval staff (CNS) without giving him any hearing.

He said that he moved a petition to the CNS for scrutiny and review of the findings on Oct 12, 2010.

The petitioner stated that CNS Vice Admiral Mohammed Asif Sandila during his visit to Karachi called him for an interview on Oct 13. He said during the interview the admiral asked him to tender resignation, which he refused to do.

He stated he was served the removal orders from the CO on Dec 21.

On Thursday, petitioner's counsel Advocate Chaudhry A. Rasheed submitted in court that his client was being proceeded under the Naval Regulation, 1987.The court drew his attention to Article 199(3) of the Constitution barring jurisdiction of the court to entertain any petition relating to service matters of the armed forces.

The counsel referred to the case of the NWFP government versus I.A. Shanwari and others (PLD 1994 SC 72) and stated that the order was later followed by the Lahore High Court in case of Lt. M Asjid Iqbal versus the federation of Pakistan (2009 CLCI 1283).

The bench put off the hearing to Jan 3 and also issued a notice to the deputy attorney general.