The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its judgement on a petition of Khawaja Muhammad Asif of PML-N who had challenged transfers/postings and shuffling of high officials by the caretaker government. Hearing the matter, a three-judge bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry directed the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister again to submit his response to an application filed by Syed Adil Gilani, Adviser Transparency International Pakistan, against the appointment of Salman Farooqui as Federal Ombudsman.
The Chief Justice observed that officers with nothing to do with election matters were transferred and posted under the pretext of Election Commission's directives. He further remarked that the caretaker government was empowered to conduct general elections; however it exceeded its mandate by reshuffling the bureaucracy on a massive scale.
The Chief Justice asked the incumbent government to observe transparency in appointments, saying the court had a constitutional duty to ensure merit in every sphere of life.
During the course of proceedings, a representative of the Establishment Division submitted a report pertaining to transfers/postings and deputation during the caretaker setup in pursuance of the court orders and produced a list of as many as 442 officers who were part of shuffling.
He apprised the bench that a total of 115 officers were promoted, of which some were appointed as head of semi-autonomous bodies whereas a few of them tendered their resignations after the earlier apex court verdict in the matter. They included former Justice Faqir Muhamad Khokhar and Ahmed Khan Lashari. After reserving judgement, the bench said that a short verdict would be announced in the matter on June 10.
Comments
Comments are closed.