LAHORE, March 19: The Lahore High Court administration committee on Saturday removed from service and compulsorily retired judges of lower judiciary besides taking disciplinary action against judicial officers on charges of corruption and professional misconduct. According to a notification issued by the LHC registrar, the administration committee terminated the services of additional district & sessions judge (AD&SJ) Muhammad Nawaz Bhatti.

The committee imposed major penalty of compulsory retirement on AD&SJ/OSD Abdul Haseeb Sheikh and Rahim Yar Khan AD&SJ Nazir Ahmad Langha. The committee removed from service Jatoi civil judge Syed Farrukh Husain Shamsi and withheld two annual increments for two years of Sadiqabad civil judge Muhammad Yousaf Hanjra.

The committee imposed minor penalty of censure on Sialkot AD&SJ Ahmad Khan and Kasur civil judge Sarwat Mumtaz Syeda.

The AC issued final show-cause notices for imposition of major penalty on five judicial officers -- two AD&SJs Muhammad Shafiq Butt from Burewala, Riaz Ahmad Khan from Toba Tek Singh and three civil judges Muhammad Saleem Sheikh from Hasilpur, Mujahid Abbas Sohail from Rahim Yar Khan and Faiz Ahmad Ranjha/OSD.

The committee re-instated ex-civil judge Shahwar Amin Wagha and initiated de novo (fresh) proceedings against Yazman AD&SJ Amjad Ali Shah.

It dropped disciplinary proceedings against nine judicial officers. They are: district and sessions judge (D&SJ) Syed Kazim Raza Shamsi from Gujranwala, AD&SJ Khadim Husain from Jampur and seven civil judges Sharafat Ali Nasir from Mianwali, Muhammad Tariq from Khanewal, Muhammad Aslam Dhariwal from Sillanwali, Waqar Mansoor from Bhowana, Faisal Jamil/OSD, Khalid Mehmood Warraich from Sialkot and Muhammad Ziaul Tariq from Rawalpindi.

The committee initiated disciplinary proceedings against D&SJ Muhammad Masroor Zaman, Bahawalnagar AD&SJ Muhammad Zaman, Bahawalpur senior civil judge Muhammad Kashif, Sillanwali civil judge Muhammad Aslam Dhariwal, Gujranwala civil judge Hassan Abbas Syed, Multan civil judge Muhammad Inayat Gondal, Isa Khel civil judge Khalid Yaqoob Warraich, Hasilpur civil judge Muhammad Saleem Sheikh, and Pasrur AD&SJ Syed Ahsan Mahboob Bokhari.

Meanwhile, according to a separate notification the LHC placed services of D&SJ/OSD Muhammad Farooq Altaf at the disposal of federal government for his posting as special judge (central) Rawalpindi on deputation till the date of his superannuation on Dec 1, 2012.