ISLAMABAD: The cabinet division and commerce ministry have recommended the removal of either the chairman or director-general of the Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO) because differences between them were affecting the organisation’s performance.
According to documents available with The Express Tribune, chairman Mir Shahjahan Khetran and director-general Syed Khalid Mehmood Bukhari do not have a good working relationship.
Khetran wrote in a letter addressed to Commerce Secretary Zafar Mehmood that he had been left with no option but to terminate Bukhari’s contract immediately. He also wrote that the DG, instead of attending the board meeting, has “run away” to Singapore for a “pleasure trip” without prior information.
According to the letter, the decision to terminate Bukhari’s contract had been taken during the eight IPO policy board meeting. Meanwhile, sources said that DG Khalid Bukhari had gone to Singapore after getting approval from the Prime Minister to attend a regional conference.
In an office order, Bukhari stated that “no transfer, posting, promotion, demotion, termination and new recruitments will be carried out in his absence”, adding any administrative action “will be nullified and will have no legal value”.
The DG not only nullified the orders of his organisation’s chairman, but directed all officials neither to correspond with the chairman or attend any meetings with him.
Published in the Express Tribune, May 28th, 2010.
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