Chief Justice Athar Minallah has passed the order on a number of petitions challenging appointment of Naeem Bukhari as chairman of the state-TV.
ISLAMABAD: (Urdu/Pakistan Point News-Jan 14th, 2021) the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday bared PTI leader Naeem Bukhari from working as chairman of Pakistan Television (ptv).
A single bench led by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah passed the order on a set of petitions questioning appoint of Naeem Bukhari as Chairman of the state tv.
During the proceedings, CJ Minallah asked if the government had relaxed the age-limit prior to the appointment. On it, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said two summaries were forwarded to the Federal cabinet on November 13 and 26.
At this, the CJ observed that federal cabinet did not make a clear decision on relaxing the age limit, pointing out that Bukhari was a respected figure but “no one was above the law,”.
The ministry officials also told the court that the summaries contended Bukhari to be an experienced and worthy candidate for the post, pointing out that the federal cabinet had approved the summaries.
“Did you inform them of the verdict of the Supreme Court? By doing this, you are embarrassing the federal cabinet as well,” the IHC CJ remarked.
The CJ also remarked that that the court does not typically want to interfere into the executive’s decision, with directives to the ministry to place a revised summary before the federal cabinet for review of the previous decision.
The Court put of further hearing for two weeks.
The Supreme court in a a suo motu case on Ataul Haq Qasmi's appointment as chairman and director of the state-run television had ordered the federal government to appoint a full-time managing director after fulfilling all legal, procedural and codal formalities by strictly following the law.
