The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday suspended a notification for the promotion of 14 officers of Inland Revenue Service of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) from grade 20 to grade 21. A division bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Lubna Saleem Pervez heard the petition and directed the respondents to submit their replies in this connection.

The IHC bench issued these directions in a petition filed by Muhammad Imtiaz, chief commissioner Regional Tax Office, Sargodha, challenging the promotion of 14 officers of the FBR.

The FBR on March 20, 2020 had promoted 14 officers of the Inland Revenue Service and the FBR Headquarters from BS-20 to BS-21.

The officers include Dr Farrukh Ansari, Sajidullah Siddiqui, Aftab Imam, Tauqeer Ahmed Memon, Shahid Iqbal Baloch, Ahmed Shuja Khan, Zulfiqar Hussain Khan, Bakhtiar Mohammad, Mohammad Qasim Samad Khan, Anwarul Haq, Ahmed Shahab, Badruddin Ahmed Quraishi, Ambreen Iftikhar, and Nabila Faran Baig.

The commissioner and the chief commissioners of the regional tax offices from Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, Abbotabad were given promotion.

The petitioner contended that he was superceded contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court.

The petitioner alleged that the Central Selection Board (CSB) in its meetings held on January 27 to 29 gave recommendations for promotion of 14 officers of the FBR.

The petitioner requested the court to direct the CSB to consider him for the promotion. He also requested the court to direct the Establishment Division and the CSB to place its meeting minutes before the court and declare the notification of promotion dated March 20 as null and void.

After hearing his arguments, the court suspended the notification and issued notices to secretary Establishment Division, the CSB, the chairman FBR and all the promoted officers directing them to submit replies.