Court matters: PHC grants time to K-P AG over dissolution of SDA

PESHAWAR:

A divisional bench of Peshawar High Court on Tuesday granted time to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa advocate general to assist the court in the dissolution of Sarhad Development Authority case. The bench, comprising Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, was hearing a petition filed by SDA Employees Association through its lawyer Mohibullah Kakakhel.

Kakakhel argued SDA assets worth billions were being transferred to K-P Economic Zone Development and Management Company (KP-EZDMC) and a notification in this regard has been issued. He argued initially Rs500 million were transferred to the company’s account. Assets worth billions that were public property were also transferred through a notification that was later dismissed by the PHC. Kakakhel added the provincial government completed the transfer process in haste, ignoring all legal requirements during the process. He argued the provincial government has appointed two industrialists as chairperson and chief executive officer from private sector, a move aimed at benefitting a few industrialists.

Kakakhel argued the provincial government should find legal means for the dissolution of a constitutional institution instead of an administrative order to dissolve it and sack its employees. The dissolution of SDA was beyond comprehension, he added. Ahmad Bilal Sufi, attorney representing KP-EZDMC, argued the company was registered under a relevant act; therefore, the writ could not be filed against it. He argued it was a fast-track company that sold vacant plots in Hattar Industrial Estate in a short span of time.

He argued the industrialists who were appointed as chairperson and chief executive officer of the company launched profitable projects in the past. According to Sufi, people of the province would soon start reaping benefits of such projects.

Unemployment

PHC Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel while expressing concerns over alarming rate of unemployment observed applicants with double postgraduate degrees were applying for class-IV posts.

The chief justice made these remarks while hearing an application filed by Sohail Sadiq who was refused a job in police department under a quota for retired employees’ heirs. Sadiq’s lawyer Khushdil Khan argued before the bench, comprising the chief justice and Justice Irshad Qaiser, that his client applied for the post of junior clerk in the department. He informed the court the applicant was a graduate but was not recruited despite meeting the criteria.

Sharing the police’s point of view, Khushdil argued the authorities claimed the junior clerk was a grade-11 post and the department could not make direct recruitment as its authority lay with the public service commission.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2016.