Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Monday urging the court to declare transfers, postings of civil servants by the federation/caretaker government null and void. PML-N leader Khawaja Muhammad Asif filed a petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution and made Federation of Pakistan through Secretary Cabinet Division and caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso respondents.
Asif contended that the caretaker government was not mandated to undertake any policy decisions that could have far-reaching ramifications. He pleaded that wide-scale transfers/postings had been made in the civil service and in autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies, corporations, regulatory authorities to the detriment of the incoming democratically-elected government. The petitioner apprised the court that Chairman National Highway Authority, Hamid Ali Khan was replaced, on May 16, 2013 with Sajjad Hussain Baloch; Chairman NEPRA was replaced, on the same day and former Justice Ahmad Khan Lashari had been appointed; Managing Director SNGPL Arif Hameed was replaced, on May 15, 2013 with Amin Tufail; Managing Director SSGCL was replaced on March 15, 2013 with Rahat Kamal Siddiqui; Managing Director, Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation; Khalid Khokhar was replaced with Saifullah Khan. Chairman, National Fertiliser, Rizwan Mumtaz Ali was removed on May 09, 2013; Managing Director, Oil and Gas Development Corporation, Masood Siddiqui was removed on May 06, 2013; Chairman, State Life Corporation was removed on May 16, 2013; Chairman, Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation had reportedly been removed and an another person in his stead. Khawaja contend that the Chairman, Pakistan Software Export Board had been removed and in his stead Saleem Ahmed Ranjha had been appointed "who is a direct inductee of former Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani".
He said the Director General FIA, who was appointed one month back, was also reportedly in the process of being replaced, adding that certain employees/officers of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had reportedly been removed from service without following the procedure as set out under the relevant statute.
Khawaja further contended that reportedly many other mid-level staff of such like aforesaid corporations/bodies had been shuffled/transferred/removed. "The manner in which the caretaker government has undertaken large scale transfers/postings reeks of mismanagement and corruption and is further in excess of the mandate conferred upon the caretaker government in terms not only of law but of the age old conventions," Khawaja contended.
He prayed the court to declare the acts of the caretaker government in effecting the aforesaid transfers/postings/shuffling null and void, void ab initio and of no legal effect being in contravention of Constitution, constitutional conventions and law. He requested the court to direct the caretaker government that all the postings/transfers/shuffling be reversed as well as to refrain from effecting any further appointments/transfers/shuffling during their remaining tenure.
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