Daily Times

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday dismissed a petition challenging the appointment of Justice Ashraf Jahan Jamali, wife of Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali, as a judge of the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) after terming it as non-maintainable. The court observed that the matter did not fall under its jurisdiction. LHC Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah heard the petition filed by Advocate Maulvi Iqbal Haider and others, and dismissed by declaring the petition non-maintainable. The petitioner’s counsel stated that Justice Ashraf Jahan Jamali was transferred to the FSC after few months of her appointment as additional judge of the Sindh High Court (SHC) without approval from the parliamentary committee for judges’ appointment. He submitted that even rules and seniority of sessions’ judges was ignored when Justice Ashraf Jahan Jamali, who at that time was district and sessions’ judge, was elevated as additional judge of Sindh High Court in 2013. He said that the president of Pakistan on September 1, 2014, extended for one-year the tenure of Justice Ashraf Jahan Jamali as additional judge of the SHC while she was already working as a judge of the FSC, adding that she was repatriated to SHC as additional judge in October 2014, and was made a confirmed judge on August 26, 2015. He said that she was again appointed as judge of the FSC on August 28, 2015, in violation of Article 203 of the Constitution. He alleged that the chief justice of Pakistan used his position for the appointment of his wife as judge of the FSC, and requested the court to set aside appointment of Justice Ashraf Jahan Jamali as judge of the FSC.