The Lahore High Court on Monday reserved its verdict in an application of federal government challenging maintainability of a petition against appointment of Pir Masood Chishti as federal law secretary. Barrister Javed Iqbal Jaffrey had filed the petition pleading that the government appointed Masood Chishti on a two-year contract basis in violation of the rules, as he was not competent to hold this office.
He said the appointment was a glaring example of nepotism as he was only appointed because he was a junior to federal law minister Babar Awan. The petitioner said that in the past a retired or on duty judge used to be appointed as law secretary but now a junior person was appointed on this slot.
He also stated that the present government so far had changed four secretaries in just two years time and Chishti was the fifth person but he had been appointed by ignoring the whole criteria. Therefore, the petitioner prayed the court to declare the appointment of the respondent as illegal. The federal government in its application stated that the petitioner was not an aggrieved party in the case so the petition be dismissed being non-maintainable.