LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday repatriated judicial officers seized with corruption cases of the Sharif family and a drug case against former law minister Rana Sanaullah Khan as the federal law ministry last week sought new nominees from the LHC.

District and Sessions Judge Masood Arshad, the presiding judge of a special court for Control of Narcotics Substance (CNS), was stopped from working in middle of the hearing on bail petition filed by the former law minister.

On Aug 28, the judge returned to the court after an hour break only to inform the prosecution and the defence that he had been barred from hearing the case through a message he received on Whatsapp.

PML-N and other opposition parties had condemned the manner in which the judge was repatriated.

Later, a law ministry’s two days old letter written to the LHC registrar emerged showing that the services of judge of the CNS had been repatriated to his parent department.

The same latter also repatriated services of judges of two accountability courts - Naeem Arshad and Mushtaq Elahi - and new nominees were sought for the posts.

Judge Naeem Arshad was hearing cases of the Ramzan Sugar Mills against Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif and his sons Hamza Shahbaz and Suleman Shahbaz. Proceedings of Chaudhry Sugar Mills case against PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz and her cousin Yousaf Abbas are also pending before his court. However, judge Elahi had no high profile case on his cause list.

The LHC had not officially responded to the ministry’s letter due to unavailability of Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan at the principal seat. However, sources said an officer of the LHC establishment contacted D&SJ Arshad on his Whatsapp asking him to stop judicial work.

With three separate but similar letters issued on Friday, all the three judicial officers were asked to report to the high court.

“Pursuant to notification dated 26.08.2019 issued by Ministry of Law and Justice, Islamabad, the Hon’ble Chief Justice has been pleased to repatriate and direct you to report to this Court forthwith for further orders,” said one of the notifications.

Through another notification, D&SJ Chaudhry Humayun Imtiaz was transferred and posted from the post of the LHC registrar to Gujranwala. Director General of the Punjab Judicial Academy D&SJ Abdul Sattar was posted as the registrar.

D&SJ Rao Abdul Jabbar was transferred and posted from Gujranwala to Sheikhpura while D&SJ Munir Ahmad was transferred and posted from Sheikhupura to Lodhran.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2019