The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday set aside the federal government's notification regarding removal of Muhstaq Ahmad Sukhera as Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO). Former Inspector General (IG) of Police, Punjab, Mushtaq Sukhera was appointed FTO in August 2017 by the then Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government. However, the federal government removed Sukhera from the post of FTO by withdrawing the official notification for his appointment.
A single bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah announced the decision in the petition of Mushtaq Sukhera, challenging his removal from the post of FTO.
The court verdict said: "The impugned notification was illegal and definitely issued in violation of the scheme of the Constitution, the Ordinance of 2000 read with the Act of 2013."
The IHC bench added, "This court cannot ignore the lack of care exercised by the Ministry of Law and Justice in initiating summary dated 17-05-2019. The attorney general could not give a plausible explanation regarding a different stance taken by the Ministry of Law and Justice in the case of the recently appointed Ombudsman under the Insurance Ordinance of 2000."
"The Ministry of Law and Justice was expected to have taken extraordinary care while initiating the summary because what had been proposed had serious consequences for an essential salient feature of the Constitution, ie, parliamentary form of government and democracy, besides the independence of a statutory adjudicatory public office."
The judgment further said that the Ministry of Law and Justice was proposing a course of action based on interpretation of section 3(1) of the Ordinance of 2000 which was a drastic departure from the interpretation that had led to appointments made from time to time for almost two decades.
Therefore, the petitioner prayed to the court to set aside the said impugned notification for being illegal and without jurisdiction. He also requested the court to restrain the respondents from interfering in the due performance and functioning of the petitioner as FTO.