Unlawful: Court declares PTDC chief’s appointment illegal

Orders BoD to make appointment as per law

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday declared appointment of managing director of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) illegal.

The court was annoyed at the disrespect shown by Prime Minister’s principal secretary and bureaucratic tactics of officials to prolong the issue.

“He [Kabir Ahmed Khan] is no more managing director of the PTDC,” Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi said in his order.

The Board of Directors (BoD) shall follow Article 112 of the Memorandum of Association in appointment of MD as prescribed by the law, he added.

The PM can neither be sued nor issued any notice as he is not answerable to any court under Article 248 of the Constitution, Justice Qureshi noted in the verdict. “Principal Secretary to the PM of Pakistan has not submitted comments showing that they have no respect for courts,” he remarked.

In addition, “the Establishment Division as well as other respondents who have not submitted comments despite the fact that time was granted to them showing their bureaucratic tactics to prolong the matter,” Justice Qureshi observed.

He added that the officials tried to make the petition infructuous on completion of the period of the appointee.

Visibly, he observed, it is seen that law has been violated while appointing Khan and the court cannot close its eyes to permit functionaries to do what they desired.

“The powers vested in federal government are not unfettered that they may exercise it by posing themselves as the kings without the crowns,” the verdict added.

Such practice, of course, is not only illegal but also repugnant to the provision of the Constitution and various pronouncements of the Supreme Court, the verdict said.

Moreover, Justice Qureshi said, even the federal government has no authority to encroach upon powers of the BoD and cannot impose any decision which amounts to interfere in autonomy of such institutions.

“The federal government used same tactics again and again by showing iron hand and even suppressed the board members somewhere by announcing the decision or by reducing their numbers to shut their voices,” it added.

Petitioner Tanweer Akhtar had challenged appointment of Khan as head of the tourism body on contract in 2014 for a period of two years. He maintained that Khan’s appointment was illegal, against rules and without completion of formalities.

Advocate Raja Saimul Haq Satti represented the board in the case.

Secretaries of the Establishment Division and Ministry of Interprovincial Coordination deliberately and unjustly appointed a retired employee on a post without unlawfully which blocked promotion of deserving officers, Akhtar had said.

While exercising constitutional jurisdiction, Justice Qureshi said, the court has powers to undo such practice by observing that it has not been done in the manner as prescribed by the law.

Subsequently, the court ordered the BoD to appoint MD as per law.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2015.