The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday accepted a petition submitted by the sacked Defence Secretary Lt Gen (Retd) Naeem Khalid Lodhi challenging his dismissal by the prime minister.
Naeem Khalid Lodhi’s lawyer Munir Pracha filed the petition in the IHC and prayed that Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilnai and President Asif Ali Zardari had forced his client Lodi to sign affidavit for submitting reply in the Supreme Court on desire of the government against Army Chief and ISI Chief on memogate issue which he refused.
The petitioner made the prime minister, president, federation, secretary establishment and acting defence secretary Nargis Sethi as parties.
The petitioner further said that on January 11, the government terminated the contract of Lodhi on allegations of gross misconduct and illegal action and for creating misunderstandings between the state institutions without giving any notice and making charge sheets against him as he was given two years contract as defence secretary.
The IHC was requested to direct Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to withdraw termination orders of then defence secretary till the investigation into the memo scandal being carried out by a judicial commission was over.
The petitioner also pleaded the court to restrain the prime minister from passing any adverse order in an alleged unlawful manner against the army chief and the ISI director general.
The petitioner said that the country and the people of Pakistan were facing acute problems due to political instability, issues related to foreign policy and economic crisis.
IHC moved against sacking of Defence Secretary
