LAHORE: Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday overruled a registrar office’s objection to a petition against appointment of Ali Jahangir Siddiqui as Pakistan ambassador to the US and directed the office to fix its hearing before an appropriate bench.

Barrister Javed Iqbal Jafree had filed the petition, pleading that Mr Siddiqui had been appointed without the mandatory approval of the federal cabinet. He said Siddiqui lacked relevant experience of diplomacy. He requested the court to set aside his nomination for appointment as ambassador to the US. The office had put objection on the maintainability of the petition.

The lawyer, however, pleaded that the office had no jurisdiction to decide maintainability of a petition. Ali Jahangir Siddiqui is son of business tycoon Jahangir Siddiqui, who also owns JS Bank and JS Private Equity.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2018