SHC tells Sindh govt to revise its rules pertaining to the FIA

Certain rules bar FIA from registering FIRs in matters of the anti-corruption establishment

HYDERABAD: As Sindh government's certain rules bar the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from registering FIR in matters pertaining to the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), Sindh High Court (SHC) has asked the province to revise the rules. It has come on record that in the prevailing rules of Anti-Corruption Sindh there are clauses barring lodging of direct FIR by the FIA, observed the bench comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry.

The bench cited rules in Punjab which allow directors of the FIA to lodge FIRs in corruption cases. Sindh additional advocate general and legal additional director [of ACE] are not in a position to controvert that such amendment is within rule-making powers of the authority, noted the bench.

SHC ordered Sindh chief secretary to remove the 'embargo' by revising the rules within two months. The order was given on a petition filed by Rashid Azeem and Gulab Laghari who appeared in the recruitment test for ACE in 2012 but they were not given the appointment orders despite qualifying the test.

During the hearing, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) submitted an inquiry report about the 2012 recruitment. Advocate KB Laghari, the counsel of the petitioners, said 24 Circle Officers of ACE are among those who were appointed in 2012 in violation of merit.

ACE Legal Additional Director Rizwan Tirmzi apprised the court that his office has time and again submitted revised rules to the Sindh chief secretary for approval but to no avail. SHC gave two months to the chief secretary to either approve or revise Tirmzi's submitted rules.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2019.