SC top admin positions held by ‘deputationists’

Court’s permanent employees demotivated; SCBA also raises objection to the practice

ISLAMABAD: For the last one decade, the permanent staff of the apex court has not been promoted to the key administrative positions in the Supreme Court and the top positions have been filed with officers transferred from other department on deputation.

Currently a District Management Group (DMG) officer Khawaja Daud Ahmad is working as the Supreme Court registrar.  Earlier, he was working as the SC’s additional registrar administration.

Services of the incumbent additional registrar administration and judicial, Abdul Razzaq, were also acquired from the courts in Punjab and he is not a permanent employee of the apex court.

An Office Management Group (OMG) officer Abdul Shabbir Khan Khattak is working as deputy registrar. The SC Human Rights Cell director general (DG) Amer Saleem Rana is also serving on deputation.

The HR Cell Director Muhammad Owais is also on deputation. Both, however, are judicial officers.

In the last one decade, the apex court has preferred to appoint DMG officers as its registrars instead of promoting its permanent officers or other judicial officer. During tenure of former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Dr Faqir Hussain worked as the SC registrar. He even got two extensions.

After his retirement, a DMG officer Syed Tahir Shahbaz was appointed to the top administrative position of the registrar.  After his retirement, he became federal ombudsman.

In 2016, another officer on deputation, Arbab Arif, was appointed as the SC registrar. He worked as the registrar for almost four years.  After his retirement, the federal government appointed him as the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) member.

In December last year, Khawaja Daud Ahmad was appointed as the SC Registrar

Interestingly, Muhammad Ali, a grade-21 office, who is permanent SC employee, was transferred to the SC Quetta Registry during the tenure of former chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar.

Now he is performing his duty at the Federal Judicial Academy (FJA).

An informal discussion with several permanent employees of the apex court revealed that the permanent staff members have become demoralized due to reduced chance of promotions.

They asked what capacity building measures have been taken by the SC administration for its permanent employees in the last one decade. Senior lawyers believe that if permanent employees are not eligible to perform at the key posts, specialist trainers should be hired for their capacity building.

The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Qalb-e-Hassan expressed serious concern over the appointment of Central Superior Services (CSP), DMG or OMG officers to the post of registrar.

He said if senior sessions judges are being appointed as high courts registrars then why judicial officers are not being considered for the post of the SC registrar, which is even more sensitive position.

The SCBA president said the SC registrar has immense power to entertain petitions in view of the Supreme Court Rules 1980. “Therefore such authority should be used by a judicial officer rather than DMG officer,” he said.

Senior lawyers also believe that appointment of the DMG officers in the SC may affect independence of judiciary. Recently, SC judge Qazi Faez Isa raised serious questions about conduct of former SC Registrar Arbab, who was also the Supreme Judicial Council’s (SJC) secretary.

The SC judge in his petition accused Arbab of biasness.

The hiring of civil servants after every three years would not send a good message to the public as thousands of employees had been repatriated to their parent departments due to the SC’s interference.