Not complying with orders: WAPDA chief executive put on notice

PHC tells utility chief to submit reply at next hearing

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday issued a notice to the power utility chief for failing to comply with the court’s 2015 orders of providing jobs to the sons of retired employees.

This was directed by a bench of the PHC headed by PHC Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth on Tuesday as the court heard a case on the son quota of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda).

Daniyal Chamkani, the lawyer for the petitioner, stated that his client’s father had served in WAPDA until his retirement.

After his father’s retirement in 2004, Chamkani said, the petitioner had applied at Wapda seeking appointment on any post suitable for his qualifications in the organization under the quota reserved for offspring of retiring officials.

However, the petitioner claimed that despite the fact that a number of suitable positions were empty and had been advertised, he had not been considered for those positions.

Chamkani told the court that since the court had already decided a number of similar petitions in favour of WAPDA’s retired employees, therefore, similar treatment must be meted out to the petitioner by appointing him on any suitable post per the quota.

Given that the court had issued an order in 2015 to appoint offspring of retired employees on suitable posts, Wapda had apparently ignored the order.

The non-compliance annoyed the bench which decided to issue a notice to the Wapda chief executive to submit a response to the petition at the next hearing of the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2018.