ISLAMABAD: After a lapse of 15 months, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday finally admitted for regular hearing an appeal filed by the federal government to take back the bulletproof Mercedes from former Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

The appeal was filed against an order passed by Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the IHC for the provision of the bulletproof car to Mr Chaudhry on January 15, 2014.

On January 31, 2014, the federal government, through the ministry of law and justice, filed the appeal. Though the appeal was fixed for hearing, at every date it was adjourned without any proceedings.

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On Monday, a division bench of the IHC, comprising Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi and Justice Amir Farooq, issued a notice to Ahsanuddin Sheikh, the attorney for Mr Chaudhry, and adjourned the hearing till the first week of June.

Arguing before the court, deputy attorney general (DAG) Fazlur Rehman Niazi and DAG Malik Faisal Rafique on behalf of the federal government alleged that the single bench had issued the direction to provide the bulletproof vehicle to the former CJP without hearing the law ministry and the cabinet division.

Mr Niazi said the single bench had also directed the law ministry to bear the maintenance and fuel cost of the car which was against rules.

According to him, the law ministry and the cabinet division were not a party in the petition but the judge directed them to provide the car to Mr Chaudhry and bear its maintenance and fuel related expenses.

He said the car was provided to Justice Chaudhry for three months but so far he had not returned it. He requested the court to direct Mr Chaudhry to return the car.

Mr Chaudhry initially planned to retain his official bulletproof car after retirement under the monetisation policy. But after retirement, he surrendered the car.

While providing the bulletproof car to the retired CJP on the court order, the cabinet division issued a notification stating that it was being given to the former CJP for three months.

However, Justice Siddiqui held that the ‘time-specific clause was unfeasible, unrealistic and discriminatory’.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2015

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