Islamabad: A major and unusual legal development has emerged in the case related to the alleged degree of Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, as the order issued by the Islamabad High Court has been formally challenged before the Constitutional Court.
According to a private TV report, Justice Tariq Jahangiri constituted a strong legal team comprising three senior lawyers to pursue the case, which has now become fully active. Senior lawyer Akram Sheikh and Barrister Salahuddin are representing the matter before the Islamabad High Court, while Advocate Aziz Bhundari has filed an appeal in the Constitutional Court against the December 9 verdict of the two-member bench of the Islamabad High Court.
In the appeal, the Islamabad High Court’s order has been declared unlawful and beyond its jurisdiction. The petition filed before the Constitutional Court argues that the application on which the High Court initiated proceedings was not legally maintainable. The petitioner maintains that the writ petition filed against him should have been dismissed as it failed to fulfill basic legal requirements.
The appeal further states that while declaring the writ petition maintainable, individuals who were not formal parties to the case were heard, whereas Justice Tariq Jahangiri himself was not given an opportunity to be heard at that stage. It has also been argued that a sensitive matter such as an LLB degree cannot be decided without recording evidence, and that such authority lies exclusively with a trial court.
According to the plea, the Islamabad High Court neither has the authority to record evidence nor can it directly decide disputes based on factual controversies of this nature. On these grounds, the Constitutional Court has been requested to dismiss the writ petition filed in the Islamabad High Court and declare the impugned order null and void.
Meanwhile, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri has also initiated separate legal proceedings before the Islamabad High Court. Through his lawyers Akram Sheikh and Barrister Salahuddin, three petitions have been filed, raising objections against Chief Justice Sardar Sarfraz Dogar.
The petitions state that the Chief Justice should recuse himself from hearing the case to ensure a transparent and impartial judicial process. It has also been requested that two other judges who were recently transferred to the court should not be included in the full court.
Justice Tariq Jahangiri has maintained that, given the sensitivity of the matter, the formation of a full court is essential to avoid any doubts or controversies. In another petition, the court has been requested to grant 30 days to submit a response and to suspend the current proceedings until the decision of a related case pending before the Sindh High Court.
