Ch. Afrasiab Khan, ASC, has successfully represented a civil servant (Deputy District Education Officer) before the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He had appealed from a decision of the Punjab Service Tribunal upholding the penalty imposed on him by the competent authority. On, 17-08-2023, the Supreme Court allowed the appeal and quashed the penalty. In its detailed judgment, the Court has laid down some important and far-reaching legal principles.
The Court has held that the Law intends that a show cause notice must conform to at least seven essential elements:
Secondly, the Court has held that a judicial order must be a speaking order manifesting by itself hat the court or tribunal has made an effort to resolve the questions involved for their proper adjudication. If the final order does not bear an imprint of such effort and, on the contrary, discloses arbitrariness of thought and action, the inescapable result would be that justice had neither been done nor seemed to have been done.
The title of the case is Sanaullah Sani vs. Secretary Education Schools etc. The Judgment has been reported at 2024 SCMR 80 and 2024 PLC (C.S.) 161 SC. It can also be downloaded from the Supreme Court website by clicking here.
The Executive Committee of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan has unanimously appointed Ch. Afrasiab Khan, ASC, as Chairman of the Election Board for the Supreme Court Bar Association Elections 2023-24 to be held by 30-10-2023. This is the 14th consecutive year that he has been entrusted with this responsibility.
On 06-10-2022, Ch. Afrasiab Khan, Advocate Supreme Court, delivered a lecture to learned members of the bar in the main Auditorium of the Rawalpindi High Court Bar Association building. The topic was “Practice of Sevice Law in the High Court”.
The lecture can be viewed on the official Youtube channel of the High Court Bar Association Rawalpindi at the following link:
Ch. Afrasiab Khan, ASC, successfully represented Konish Enterprise (Pvt.) Ltd. before the Supreme Court of Pakistan in an appeal filed by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd. (“PTCL”) against a judgment of the Peshawar High Court. The judgment is reported at PLD 2020 SC 261.
Under a contract with the National Highways Authority (“NHA”), Konish was engaged in the business of planting and maintaining tens of thousands of trees along certain roads in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. PTCL started laying an underground optic fibre cable along the same roads and damaged a large number of plants in the process. Konish sued PTCL for damages. The Civil Judge allowed Konish’s claim. The Peshawar High Court upheld the judgment of the Civil Judge. PTCL appealed to the Supreme Court where Konish was represented by Ch. Afrasiab Khan, ASC.
PTCL argued that the suit filed by Konish was incompetent as proper authority to institute the same, whether by way of the relevant resolution of the Board of Directors or the company’s Articles of Association, had not been produced. The Supreme Court dismissed this objection. Mr. Justice Munib Akhtar, writing for the Court, relied upon Pak Turk Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd. v. Turk Hava Yollari (Turkish Airlines Inc.) [2015 CLC 1] to hold that it was not necessary to produce such an authority in this case.
PTCL also argued that it owed no duty of care to Konish as it had entered NHA’s property under a valid license from NHA and it was impossible to work that license without damaging Konish’s plants. Mr. Justice Munib Akhtar held that a duty of care did exist and that there can be no doubt that the record establishes that PTCL worked its license in a manner that caused injury and damage to Konish.
The Supreme Court dismissed PTCL’s appeal and upheld the judgment for damages in favour of Konish.
We have been engaged to advise Fauji Electric Power Company Ltd. in respect of a dispute with the Government of Balochistan. The dispute involves a vast area of land in Lasbela, Balochistan. It includes legal issues surrounding installation of an oil pipeline by Fauji Foundation’s partner, BYCO/Universal Terminal Ltd., as well as a mining lease.
The Supreme Court has formed a committee to prepare a final draft of planned reforms for Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) while hearing a case regarding the constitutional status of the territory. The committee is headed by the attorney general and includes senior lawyers Ch. Aitzaz Ahsan, Ch. Afrasiab Khan, Salman Akram Raja, Secretary Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, and the GB law minister.
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Ch. Afrasiab Khan, ASC, represented the successful Petitioners and Appellants (all high ranking bureaucrats) in two Constitution Petitions and a Civil Appeal challenging, inter alia, the following pieces of legislation:
The Honourable Supreme Court declared that all these legislations are in violation of the Constitution. The Court also declared illegal all “absorptions” by the Government of Sindh since 1994. The Court futher declared that all out of turn promotions given under section 9-A of the Sindh Civil Servants Act, 1973, by the Government of Sindh to an employee or civil servant with or without antedated seniority since 22-01-2002, when section 9-A was inserted through Ordinance IV of 2002, are ultra vires of the Constitution.
The Honourable Supreme Court then directed: “A copy of this judgment be sent to the Chief Justice, Sindh High Court, through Registrar for circulating it amongst the learned judges. A copy of this judgment be also sent to all the Chief Secretaries of the Provinces as well as Secretary, Establishment Division, Government of Pakistan, with the direction to streamline the service structure of civil servants in line with the principles laid down in this judgment. The Chief Secretary and Secretary, Services, Sindh, are further required to comply with this judgment in letter and spirit and report compliance within three weeks.”
Honourable Mr. Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa added a landmark additional note to the judgment, which reads: “It is true that the judicial precedent available thus far declares that mala fide cannot be attributed to the legislature but if a legislature deliberately and repeatedly embarks upon a venture to nullify considered judicial verdicts in an unlawful manner, trample the constitutional mandate and violate the law in the manner it was done in the presentcase then it is difficult to attribute bona fide to it either.”
The Respondents were represented by senior lawyers Dr. Farough Naseem, Anwar Mansoor Khan, Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, M.M. Aqil Awan and Khalid Javed etc..
The judgment is reported at 2013 SCMR 1752. A copy is also available on the Supreme Court website.
Ch. Afrasiab Khan, ASC, represented the successful Petitioner in a Petition for Writ of Certiorari before the Honourable Islamabad High Court. He was assisted by Ch. Imran Hassan Ali, Advocate. The Petitioner, Muhammad Azhar Chughtai, was employed as Manager (S&FA) in the Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd. (OGDCL). He was wrongfully terminated from service. The High Court set aside the termination by holding that the Deputy Chief HR Officer had wrongly bypassed the the Board of Directors in issuing the termination letter, which was, therefore, without lawful authority. The Court further held that the termination was a mala fide response by OGDCL to Mr. Chughtai’s plea for regularisation in service. Consequently, the Court ordered that the Petitioner would be deemed to have never been terminated. He will also be entitled to full pay and benefits for the period he was kept out of office.
The Honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan has declared the Contempt of Court Act, 2012, as ultra vires of the Constitution. Ch. Afrasiab Khan, ASC, represented one of the Petitioners who had challenged the law. The judgment is reported as “Baz Muhammad Kakar and others vs. Federation of Pakistan etc.” (PLD 2012 SC 870)
For media coverage of the case, click below: