ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday dismissed a petition filed against the appointment of Flight Lieutenant (retired) Khaqan Murtaza as the director general (DG) of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

A single bench of Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the petition filed against the appointment of the DG CAA, and also sought contempt of court proceedings against the government functionaries for making this appointment.

Justice Minallah rejected the petition filed by Capt Asim Nawaz by terming it inadmissible.

He added that the appointment of the DG CAA had been made after a lapse of two years, and the aviation industry had suffered due to this.

The IHC bench observed that the petition did not lie in the jurisdiction of the contempt of court law, and dismissed the same.

Capt Asim Nawaz moved the petition and cited the Ministry of Civil Aviation as respondent.

In the petition, referring to the November 27 order of the IHC, he alleged that Murtaza, an officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS), was not a qualified person for the highly technical and challenging post, especially when Pakistan was facing a ban of the Inter­national Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on flying by the country's airline pilots to 188 countries.

He had further stated that it was to bring to the kind notice of this Court that the ICAO had already issued serious safety concerns about the CAA Pakistan, and if not handled properly according to the inter­national aviation regulatory standards, it would have dire consequences against the entire aviation industry of Pakistan.

The petitioner had added that the government had tried to obstruct the process of the court through deceptive skills and got appointed a DG against the rules, regulations and the Supreme Court ruling.

He had continued that after the PIA A320 crash and a lot of argument/splash on the media against inefficiency of the CAA, the post of DG was advertised by the aviation ministry. After that, around 600 candidates applied for the post; among them 18 candidates were short-listed and interviewed by the defunct selection board on October 14 but no one was selected by the redundant board.

The petitioner had said that thereafter, on November 7, the secretary aviation informed the cabinet that they could not find a single suitable candidate among 600 applicants, which was false, fabricated and frivolous statement by him (Respondent 1 in the petition), as all short-listed 18 aspirants were much more qualified than the present DG selected against the IHC orders.

Therefore, he prayed before the court to set aside the notification for the appointment of Murtaza, and issue a directive for making this appointment on merit. He had also requested the court to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the officials responsible for obstructing the court order. The federal government appointed Murtaza as the DG CAA on November 28.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020