SC Takes Up Absar Alam’s Appeal After 5 Years, Dismisses On First Hearing

SC Takes Up Absar Alam’s Appeal After 5 Years, Dismisses On First Hearing
Supreme Court of Pakistan has dismissed Absar Alam Haider’s appeal against his removal from PEMRA chairmanship. Haider was removed as the head of the media regulatory body in 2017 by Lahore High Court.

The appeal had been taken up by SC five years after LHC’s decision and was dismissed on first hearing.

Absar Alam tweeted that his lawyer Zahid F. Ebrahim had filed for an adjournment due to a health condition. However, the three-member bench comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi not only refused to grant an adjournment but also dismissed the petition.

Absar-Alam-judgement

In its order, SC wrote that there was no medical certificate attached with the application.

‘Even otherwise, the matter has ex facie become infructuous. We are not inclined to adjourn the same. The petition is accordingly dismissed for non-prosecution.’

Journalist Asad Ali Toor quote-tweeted Absar Alam, saying the decision couldn’t have been much different since ‘the lawyer you had hired had resigned as Additional Attorney General in 2019 protesting against filing a frivolous reference against Jusice Qazi Faez Isa’. “He’s not a ‘like-minded’ lawyer”, Toor added.