LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) held that the Ministry of Industries has no jurisdiction to transfer the technical and non-technical officers of BPS-18 to 19 of the Pakistan Industrial Technical Assistance Centre (PITAC).
The court observed that under clause 59 of the PITAC Rules and Regulations of 1962, the power to transfer the officers lies with the executive committee of PITAC.
The court passed this order in a petition of Muhammad Imran challenging his transfer in compliance of the direction of the ministry.
The petitioner was transferred from the post of deputy director (Marketing) in Lahore to PITAC Regional Centre (RC), Quetta as Regional Manager RC.
The petitioner’s counsel submitted that under the relevant rules, the authority to transfer the officers in PITAC lies with the executive committee of PITAC and the ministry has no role in the matter.
In response to the question of maintainability of the petition, the counsel submitted that PITAC was an attached organisation of the ministry and its rules and regulations, 1962 were revised by the federal government in 2014; therefore, the said rules being statutory, this constitutional petition is maintainable.
The court after hearing the petitioner’s counsel at length observed that the impugned transfer order passed in compliance with the direction of the ministry is patently without jurisdiction and hence is not sustainable. The court observed that though there are allegations and counter-allegations by respective parties in this petition and in response thereto; however, as the impugned order is found to be without jurisdiction, therefore, this constitutional petition is allowed.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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