The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has granted status quo against the entire selection process of Commercial Counsellors for Pakistan''s Missions abroad on a petition filed by Ahsan Ali Mangi, an officer of District Management Group (DMG). The Special Selection Board comprising Commerce Minister, Secretary Commerce, Secretary Establishment, Secretary Foreign Affairs and Secretary Board of Investment (BoI) and 47 Commercial Counsellors have been made party in the writ petition.
This is the third petition against the selection process of Commercial Counsellors which has been filed in the IHC. Earlier, Irfan Tarar and Naveed Aziz challenged the selection process. After the arguments, the IHC observed that in respect of the same subject matter another writ petition has been admitted for hearing. Therefore, this writ petition is also admitted for hearing. The Court also directed that this case be fixed along with the connected case. The court also directed that in the meanwhile status quo shall be maintained till a date is fixed.