The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has rejected a petition put forth by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to remove Javed Iqbal from his role as the chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances following his recent video scandal.
Acting Chief Justice Amir Farooq of the Islamabad High Court during a hearing of the case today suspended the recommendation of the PAC to remove Javed Iqbal after videos of him and Tayyaba Gul surfaced and other accounts of harassment were brought to view.
The court also issued notices to the National Assembly and PAC secretaries, instructing them not to take any action against Iqbal.
A day earlier, Iqbal had submitted a petition to the IHC seeking a stay order on the PAC proceedings against him. His counsel argued that it was not within the PAC’s jurisdiction to remove him from the missing persons commission.
The petitioner’s lawyer requested that the minutes of the PAC’s July 7 meeting be declared unconstitutional and illegal, and claimed that the powers of the PAC had been exceeded in its previous two petitions against the former National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chief.
In the petition it was stated that the PAC was misusing its powers, and that its direction was ‘void’ and of ‘no legal consequence whatsoever’.
