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LAHORE:
The Lahore High Court’s (LHC) division bench on Tuesday overturned a previous order from a single bench that had declared the appointment of Lt General Munir Afsar as chairman of the NADRA illegal and unlawful.
The division bench restored Lt General Afsar to his position.
The bench, led by Justice Ch Muhammad Iqbal, addressed an intra-court appeal filed by the federal government challenging the ruling of LHC’s Justice Asim Hafeez.
Justice Hafeez had earlier ruled against Lt General Afsar’s appointment, contested in the appeal.
During the proceedings, Justice Iqbal inquired about the specific notification that was being challenged.
The law officer representing the federation clarified that the challenge was against the appointment notification issued by the caretaker government.
He argued that the petitioner had only contested this notification and had not addressed the new rules governing the appointment.
The petition stated that the single bench’s decision had been made without a full examination of the facts and requested that the court overturn the previous order, which had declared Lt General Afsar’s appointment as illegal.
Background of the case
Previously, LHC’s Justice Asim Hafeez issued a detailed 30-page judgment criticizing the unauthorized appointment of Lt General Afsar.
Justice Hafeez argued that the appointment was made without proper authority and did not comply with legal requirements, stating, “One cannot hide the elephant in a mouse-hole”.
He declared that the confirmation of Lt General Afsar’s appointment was unauthorised and inconsistent with the law, thus invalidating his position.
Ashba Kamran, the petitioner, had challenged the appointment on the grounds that it violated the NADRA Ordinance, 2000.
Kamran contended that the appointment did not follow a fair and competitive process and failed to meet constitutional principles of equality and merit.