May 17, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 11, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 16: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday ordered the education ministry to regularise the services of thirty contractual teachers working in the federal capital.

The IHC chief justice Sardar Mohammad Aslam issued the directives after hearing various identical writ petitions.

Ali Murad Baloch and Mohammad Siddique Qureshi, counsel for the petitioners, told the court that these teachers had been working in different educational institutes in the capital for the last many years.

They said despite their satisfactory performances, the ministry had failed to regularise their services.

Meanwhile, the same bench revoked a decision of the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench and allowed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to proceed against a customs official.

The IHC chief justice issued the order after hearing a case against customs official Khalid Mehmood Hashmi.

Syed Masood Hussain advocate contended that the FIA could not proceed against the customs official, as ordered by the Lahore High Court.

The chief justice remarked that how it was possible that FIA could not proceed with an inquiry against the official.

The LHC in 2001 barred FIA from conducting an inquiry against him and granted a stay.

The IHC chief justice after hearing arguments vacated the stay.

The bench also accepted two separate writ petitions of Dr Abdul Qayyum and Tanveer Khalid Butt for removal of their names from the Exit Control List.

Chaudhry Umar Hayat Sindhu Advocate contended that the names of their clients had been on the ECL since 2004 without any sound reason.

In another case, the bench dismissed a writ petition of Sajid Suhail, former registrar of Quaid-i-Azam University, seeking reinstatement.—APP