Barrister Javed Iqbal Jaffree here on Tuesday moved an application requesting that a larger bench headed by a permanent judge of the Lahore High Court (LHC) should be constituted to hear his constitutional petition challenging the appointment of former Justice Syed Deedar Hussain as chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The petition came up for hearing on Monday, October 11 before Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh, when petitioner said that he had some constitutional, religious and personal reservations on the learned judge and requested to send the petition to Chief Justice for its fixation before some other bench. The judge had referred it to Chief Justice and now petitioner moved application for larger bench.
Petitioner Barrister Jaffree had submitted that Deedar was not competent for this post and his appointment was against the Constitution because as per 18th Amendment, consultation with Chief Justice of Pakistan and Opposition was necessary for this appointment, which has not been made in this case. He claimed that article 15 of the Constitution have been violated for the appointment of Deedar.
Petitioner stated that this appointment was not on merit and it was only a political appointment. He said Deedar had been elected MPA twice on the PPP ticket and he had defended President Zardari in corruption cases as his lawyer, which was not qualification to hold this office. Petitioner claimed that he was more educated than Deedar and he had formally applied for the post some 15 years ago and he was on merit. He, therefore, prayed to the court to declare the appointment of Deedar as unconstitutional.