The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the petition of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) petition against the interim relief of Lahore High Court (LHC), which reinstated Saleem Altaf as Director, Special Projects of the PCB.
A three-member bench of the apex court, comprising Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, Justice M. Javed Buttar and Justice Mohammad Qaim Jan, dismissed the petition.
Naeem Bokhari appeared before the court as counsel for Saleem Altaf, whereas Attorney General Malik Muhammad Qayyum represented the PCB. Salim Altaf was appointed Director, Cricket Operations, in 2005 and was re-designated as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the PCB soon after Dr Nasim Ashraf took over as PCB Chairman in October 2006.
The PCB removed Saleem Altaf on June 12, 2008 for an alleged involvement in leakage of sensitive and confidential information to the press. He was serving as Director, Special Projects, at the time of his termination.
The PCB claimed that it chose not to extend Salim Altaf's contract, which was due till July 7, 2008. On the other hand, Saleem Altaf maintained that his contract was valid till the World Cup 2011, which is to be organised jointly by Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
On Tuesday, Naeem Bokhari argued that the President of Pakistan as Patron-in-Chief of the PCB had appointed Saleem Altaf in 2005. The appointment letter issued on March 18, 2005 by the PCB did not have mention of his services tenure.
He said that on April 18, 2007, he was re-designated as Director, Special Projects. The letter says that "...You will continue to work on the digital screen installations project and may be assigned any other projects by the PCB at its discretion. You will remain on contract with the board till such a time as your services are transferred to the Central Organising Committee (COC) of IPSB World Cup-2011 as Executive Director".
He said that the PCB Chairman was not competent authority to terminate him. It was only the President, who could remove him from the office. The termination letter was not approved by the Patron of the PCB, he added.
Therefore, Saleem Altaf was still intact to his office and was never removed. But, he was not allowed to enter his office with the show of power and was shown the door.
Naeem said that the LHC had not decided the matter yet and had granted tentative relief. The PCB had to submit its statement pertaining to the petition. He prayed that the matter should be referred to the LHC for the decision. Malik Muhammad Qayyum said that Saleem Altaf was appointed as Director, Operations, for three years and the nature of his job was contractual.
He said that services rules were not applicable to contractual jobs and one could be removed from his office at any stage. He said that Saleem Altaf had signed the contract with the PCB and had nothing to do with the President. Qayyum said that the High Court had exceeded its authority and the order should be set aside.
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