The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday reserved its judgement on a petition filed by Lt Gen (r) Naeem Khalid Lodhi against his removal from the post of defence secretary.
Lodhi was removed from the post by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in January, after which he moved the IHC against his dismissal and filed two petitions seeking reversal of the orders.
A single-member bench comprising Justice Azim Khan Afridi heard the case through Lodhi’s counsel FK Butt. The counsel for the petitioner submitted that his client was terminated by the prime minister without any prior notice and requested the court to cancel the termination orders.
Deputy Attorney General Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri contended that Lodhi was working on a two-year contract and according to the rules for contractual employees, the government could terminate them whenever it wanted by paying them a month’s salary in advance. “Removal of Lodhi as defence secretary was according to the law and one month’s extra salary was also paid to him for his immediate termination,” the DAG said.
He said the former defence secretary, instead of making a departmental appeal for reinstatement, challenged his removal in the IHC. He said Lodhi also made false allegations against the government authorities that they wanted to remove army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and then Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director general Ahmad Shuja Pasha due to which they removed him.
He requested the court to reject the plea of the former defence secretary as his removal by the government was legal.
The DAG further submitted before the court that Lodhi was later appointed Fauji Fertilizer chairman for three years through a letter signed by Acting Defence Secretary Nargis Sethi.