Lahore High Court (LHC) Forms Larger Bench For Hearing Of Ahmad Awais' Plea

Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti on Thursday constituted a larger bench for hearing a petition filed by Ahmad Awais against his removal as advocate general Punjab

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Feb, 2023 ) :Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti on Thursday constituted a larger bench for hearing a petition filed by Ahmad Awais against his removal as advocate general Punjab.

Justice Ali Baqar Najafi would head the bench whereas Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh, Justice Muzamil Akhtar Shabir, Justice Rasaal Hassan Syed and Justice Asim Hafeez would be its members.

On January 26, 2023, Ahmad Awais had approached the LHC against his removal and his petition was heard by Justice Muzamil Akhtar Shabir on the same day. Justice Muzamil Akhtar Shabir also heard the petition on January 27 but excused from hearing the matter and sent the petition to the LHC CJ for fixing before another bench.

On the same day, the petition was fixed before Justice Shahid Karim with the approval of the chief justice but no proceedings took place due to paucity of time. Later, on the insistence of the petitioner's counsel, after the permission of chief justice, the matter was fixed before Justice Asim Hafeez who heard the matter and issued notices to the parties for February 1 after hearing initial arguments on January 27.

Justice Asim Hafeez heard the matter on February 1 and after hearing arguments of the parties, held that the matter pertains to Class G of the notification issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan. The judge further observed that the LHC CJ had formed a full bench to hear identical petitions and sent the petition to LHC CJ with a request to fix it before the full bench.

It is pertinent to mention here that the chief justice had formed the full bench, headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, for hearing of petitions against removal of heads of departments and dissolution of board of directors of public companies after the matter was sent by Justice Muzamil Akhtar Shabir with a request for the purpose.

On receiving Ahmad Awais's plea, the chief justice clubbed all the petitions together and formed a larger bench headed by Justice Shujaat Ali Khan after dissolving the full bench.

But, after Justice Shujaat Ali Khan excused from heading the bench, the chief justice reconstituted the larger bench which would be headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi.