Ministry of Industries and Production (MoI&P) has reportedly appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of National Industrial Parks & Management Company (NIP) in violation of rules, well-informed sources told Business Recorder on Thursday. The NIP has been established as a special initiative of the Ministry of Industries & Production and is working as a subsidiary of the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC).
The ministry recently appointed Mudassar Iqbal, a BPS-19 officer of EDB, as CEO of NIP for three years; however, according to some experts, this appointment is illegal.
According to rules, if a government servant is appointed at another post, he or she is required to resign from his or her existing post but the incumbent CEO NIP has assumed the charge and is simultaneously holding /retaining the post of GM EDB.
"Neither has he resigned from his post at EDB, nor has any relieving order been issued so far, but he has taken over the charge of CEO NIP," the sources added. In case of a government servant (BPS-19 & above), the government leave rules allow him to work with international organisations, foreign governments, NGOs or private organisations with the approval of the prime minister, whereas he cannot serve in another government or public sector organisation, the expert added.
The NIP being a subsidiary company under the administrative control of M/o Industries & Production is a public sector organisation as defined in Section 2(g) of Corporate Governance Rules, 2013. This correspondent sent questions to the incumbent EDB CEO Tariq Ejaz Chaudhry on November 30, 2016 to seek his opinion about the status of Mudassar Iqbal in his organisation but he received no reply till filing of this report.
An insider told this correspondent that in a recent meeting of the NIP Board, one of the Board members was of the view that the new CEO would have completed all codal formalities prior to joining new assignment. On this, the CEO had replied in the affirmative.
However, when this correspondent approached the CEO NIP, he clarified that he has been granted extraordinary leave from the EDB, which means he will rejoin the organisation after his term as CEO NIP expires. He was of the view that one candidate who was at number one position in the summary had challenged his appointment in the court. His writ petition was rejected and now he has filed an intra-court appeal. The CEO NIP also said that EDB has sent his case to the Establishment Division through the Ministry of Industries and Production to seek legal opinion.