Probe into Broadsheet scam: Appointment of Azmat as chairman of body challenged

ISLAMABAD: Appointment of former Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed as chairman of one-man Inquiry Commission to probe Broadsheet scam was challenged in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

A single bench of Chief Justice Athar Minallah will hear the writ petition filed by a lawyer, Saleemullah Khan in person today (Friday).

The petitioner cited federation of Pakistan through prime minister, former Justice Azmat Saeed, a former judge of the Supreme Court, the Supreme Judicial Council, the Pakistan Bar Council, and the Supreme Court Bar Association as respondents.

He adopted the Pakistan Commission of Inquiry Act, 2007 does not define the qualification criteria of the chairman.

Therefore, it is not essential for the chairman to be a former judge and just any citizen can be appointed as chairman or a member of the commission.

He stated that Azmat Saeed does not qualify for the judicial function as he has been called upon to perform such because he has served as the deputy prosecutor general of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) during the period, when the agreements were signed between the NAB and the Broadsheet LLC.

The petitioner further said that Justice Azmat was an active member of the five-member apex court bench which heard the highly politicised “Panama Papers” and disqualified Nawaz Sharif.

Former Justice Azmat till date was a governor in the Board of Governors of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust and Hospital, he added.

The petitioner claimed that there was hardly any contest about the fact that Azmat Saeed had serious questions of conflict of interests and most likely partisanship with the sitting government of the PTI rendering him unsuitable for the task he had been burdened with which stood in utter and very serious contravention of the judges’ Code of Conduct.

He, therefore, prayed before the court to declare his appointment notification as ultra vires of the Judges’ Code of Conduct, and direct the respondents to revise the said impugned notification appointing an individual who has an impartial past and profile, who is able to deliver the said task with full impartially and who is not suffering from any conflict of interest at all.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021