Running of APP: Notice issued to federal information secretary

Petitioner challenges foreign postings and hiring retired staff.

KARACHI:

Notices were issued to the federal secretary of information, the managing director of the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) and its Karachi bureau chief for July 26 in a petition filed by a senior sub editor and reporter of the national news agency.

He has challenged irregularities while deciding on foreign postings, the way the employees’ provident fund has been depleted, that people have been illegally appointed without the ministry’s approval and retired employees have been rehired as regular staffers but at the next, higher grade.

The bench, comprising Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, earlier heard Barrister Farogh Naseem, the counsel for the petitioner, who submitted that the respondent corporation was run in an arbitrary manner, the rules of business and government were being violated and employment against non-existent posts were being made despite the precarious financial condition of the premier news agency.

The counsel maintained that staffers who were junior to the petitioner were being considered for foreign postings while the petitioner was being conveniently ignored.

After hearing the counsel for the petitioner, the bench granted the application for an urgent hearing and ordered the notices to be issued to the respondents for July 26.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2011.