Illegal appointments: Islamabad’s top court sacks its registrar

Impact of Supreme Court order rattles IHC’s administrative structure with sackings and demotions

ISLAMABAD: A day after a Supreme Court judge stepped down for his alleged involvement in illegal appointments in the Islamabad High Court, the IHC swung into action and sacked its registrar, and reverted the IHC chief justice’s secretary and several other officials.

A three-member committee of IHC judges examining illegal appointments, postings and transfers of the court’s employees decided to sack IHC Registrar Atiqur Rehman, who had been re-hired on contractual basis in June, and BS-14 assistant Farzana Bahadur with immediate effect.

Interestingly, the records of promotions revealed that the court’s prayer leader, Muhammad Shahid, who regularly professed piety and righteousness, had been given an unusually generous promotion to a much higher post in total disregard of rules and violation of the existing criteria.

Although the document only stated that Shahid was promoted to grade 17, court officials revealed that he was originally serving in grade 10 when he got the promotion.

Muhammad Suhail, the secretary to the IHC chief justice, has been reverted from BS-20 to BS-18. On May 23, 2012, he was promoted from private secretary in BS-18 to deputy registrar in BS-19. Just a year later, on February 2, 2013, he was bumped up to secretary to the IHC chief justice in BS-20.

In addition, the committee, headed by Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi, de-notified the postings of Muhammad Shoaib Atique from BS-7 to assistant protocol officer in BS-16 and the up-gradation of Yasir Altaf as data processing officer in BS-17.

Registrar’s sacking

IHC Chief Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi had rehired Rehman as the IHC registrar in BS-22 for a period of six months while allowing him to draw his allotted pension in addition to his salary.

The appointment’s notification had said that Rehman would get allowances, perks and privileges as admissible to an officer in grade-22, including additional benefits extended by the court from time-to-time. The IHC chief justice had allowed him to avail an official vehicle, accommodation, and medical care.

Para 79 of the apex court’s decision deals with contract employment, stating, “Any person appointed on contract basis against a permanent vacancy or against a promotion post violates the spirit of the rule…and should be de-notified.”

In its judgment, the Supreme Court had constituted a three-member committee to examine the cases of all appointments made from 2011 onwards in violation of the rules and, subsequently, order their de-notification.

The apex court had directed the committee to complete the exercise within a period of one month from the date of communication of the judgment and submit a detailed report.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2016.