LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice (CJ) Muhammad Qasim Khan on Thursday asked the law officers and petitioner's counsel to submit their further arguments on September 14 on maintainability of a petition challenging premature transfers of the Inspector General of Police Punjab (IGP) and Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore.

The CJ took up the petition filed by PML-N MPA Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, as an 'objection case' since the registrar office questioned the locus standi of the petitioner to agitate the matter.

Earlier, the law officers for the federal and the Punjab governments opposed the maintainability of the petition and said the petitioner was not an aggrieved party. They argued that the matters relating to transfer and promotion of the civil servants could not be taken directly to the high court as service tribunal was the appropriate forum, he added.

Addressing the court, the petitioner, said the matter raised in the petition was of high importance. Every case before the court is important, observed the Chief Justice asking the MPA as to how he was an affected person in the case. The CJ further asked the petitioner whether he had been authorized to file the petition through a resolution passed by the provincial assembly. He said the question raised in the petition was not the transfer of an officer but the violation of Police Order 2002 and every citizen had the locus standi to challenge it.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020