Court orders compliance: Gilani sacks 26 top officers on contract

Chairman of the National Language Authority Iftikhar Arif resigns.

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani terminated the services of 26 senior officers, among them ambassadors, members of the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) and police who were working on contract.

Prominent among the sacked officers was Deputy Inspector-General Shahid Iqbal, who was responsible for recovering a Rs6 billion property of the National Police Foundation from a PML-N lawmaker, Anjum Aqeel Khan.

The list of officers, whose services were terminated by the prime minister after he held a meeting with Secretary Establishment Rauf Chaudhary, would be submitted before the Supreme Court on Friday.

Meanwhile, Iftikhar Arif, the chairman of the National Language Authority (NLA), also tendered his resignation, asking the prime minister to accept it with immediate effect as he, too, was working on contract.

Mr Arif is said to have tendered his resignation to avoid being dismissed by the prime minister in line with the Supreme Court orders.

He was said to have been given the contract after he was removed from the Pakistan Academy of Letters on the recommendation of the secretary-general to the president, Salman Farooqi.

The notification to relieve Mr Iftikhar Arif would be issued after approval from the prime minister.

The cabinet division has already advertised the post of chairman NLA, advising Arif to continue to work till further orders.  Secretary Establishment Rauf Chaudahry would appear before the apex court to plead that the government was complying with its orders.

But, sources said, officials of the establishment division are anticipating serious grilling at the hands of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who might question the removal of Additional DG FIA Zafar Qureshi and Javed Bokhari who were investigating the NICL scandal, involving Moonis Elahi, and the Hajj scam, respectively.

Both officers were removed on the orders of the prime minister apparently to pave the way for a political alliance with the PML-Q.

Meanwhile, the following officers were dismissed by the prime minister on Thursday: DIG Sindh Police Nadir Hussain Khosa, DIG Larkana Din Muhammad Baloch, member of the Staff College, Lahore, Brig Shahid Akram Kardar, Textile Commissioner Mohammad Idris, DIG NPF Shahid Iqbal, adviser on water and power Mohammad Khan Memon, director-general of Immigration, Labour and Manpower Mohammad Umar Morio, Mohammad Akram Shaheehi of Pakistan Papers, Mohammad Tila of the Quaid-i-Azam Papers, ambassadors Gul Hanif, Asghar Afridi and Kausar Ehsan Iqbal and Dr Maqsood Ahmed of the Vetrninary Council, PIDE’s Mohammad Aslam, FBR’s Abrar Ahmed, assistant engineer Mohammad Salman Farooq and additional commissioner FBR Sardar Ali Qizilbash.

The following officers were relieved from the Pakistan Railways: Mohammad Ashraf, Qurban Ali, Abdul Shakoor, Nasir Ali, Mohammad Afaq, Mohammad Idris Kazmi, Abdul Shakoor Abid.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2011.