LAHORE - The Lahore High Court yesterday dismissed the petition of a mother seeking directions for the health authorities to allow sex reassigment surgery for her 24-year old daughter.

Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah passed the order observing that the petitioner was not affected party as her daughter was grown up and could herself approach a court for remedy of her grievance.

Earlier, a deputy attorney general also informed the court that there were no laws related to the issue and thus, the petition was not maintainable.

Shama Begum had moved the petition and stated that her daughter Ayesha Shafique, 24, was experiencing extremely painful bouts owing to her changing gynecological features. According to the mother, Ayesha was admitted to a hospital where doctors conducted several medical examination tests.

She had pointed out that several ultrasounds and examination confirmed her daughter was undergoing sexual transition and needed urgent care. The petitioner had stated that when she requested the doctors to change her gender, they refused to do so fearing legal action against them.

Sex reassignment is a surgical procedure by which a transgender person’s physical appearance and function of their existing sexual characteristics are altered of their identified gender.

Arguments on HEC powers sought

The Lahore High Court yesterday sought arguments from Punjab Higher Education Commission about powers of the Higher Education Commission regarding appointment of vice-chancellors in public sector universities across the province.

A division bench headed Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah passed the orders on Intra Court Appeal filed by Punjab government and others against the order of the single bench that struck down the appointment process for vice-chancellors at four public sector varsities and acting heads.

During the hearing, the counsel of the Higher Education Commission could not respond to the queries of the division bench when he was asked about the role of the commission at federal and provincial level.

The four varsities whose acting VCs were removed earlier include Punjab University, Lahore College for Women University, University of Sargodha and Nawaz Sharif University Engineering & Technology, Multan.

Advocate AK Dogar appeared in the court on behalf of LCWU and argued that federal government / HEC was set to standards for the higher education only but in fact it was the domain of the provincial government to establish a university and appointing faculties including VCs.

However, the Chief Justice refused to hear appeal of Dr. Mujahid Kamran, former vice-chancellors of Punjab University observing that the appellant had no locus standi to the ongoing proceedings. 

The counsel of Kamran, Advocate Taimur contended that he was given look after charge till the permanent appointment of VC and he had no vested interest. At this, the CJ observed that a person appointed on look after charge could be changed anytime and he could file a separate petition if he had any grievance.

The court directed a deputy attorney general to apprise the court about the role of the federal government regarding setting standard for education and adjourned hearing for Tuesday (Today).

pETITION against ‘blackmailer’ ADMITTED 

The LHC allowed an application of Young Doctors’ Association seeking transfer of trial of a suspect involved in blackmailing female doctors through Facebook, WhatsApp and other networking accounts.

Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah passed the order after a deputy prosecutor said that the trial court judge was also not willing to conduct the trial further.

Salman Kazmi, leader of the doctors’ association, had filed the application in which he had shown distrust on the judge of an anti-terrorism court seized with the trial. The petitioner through his counsel had argued that the court had been holding the trial in a discriminatory manner that would benefit the suspect. He said they repeatedly requested the court to summon case property including Laptop, mobile phone cards etc which were recovered from the custody of the suspect.

He requested the court to transfer the trial of the suspect from the court of ATC judge Chaudhry Azam to some other judge.  The Association had alleged that Abdul Wahab Alvi, the suspect, used social media to blackmail a number of female doctors who later left the profession.