‘Ignoring merit’: Recent appointments in sessions court challenged

IHC seeks replies from respondents within two weeks.

ISLAMABAD:

The recent appointments of 17 people in the sessions court of the capital were challenged in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday.

Justice Riaz Ahmad Khan of IHC sought replies from Secretary Law, IHC Registrar, District & Sessions Judge and Senior Civil Judge East while issuing them notices on a petition that stated that the appointments were not made on merit.

Advocate Chaudhary Bilal Iqbal had earlier filed a petition in IHC on behalf of Chaudhry Imran Wali and others who claimed that they had applied for the posts.

Around 109 vacancies of readers, civil nazirs, accountants, record keepers and other clerical positions of the sessions court were advertised in the national press. After initial scrutiny of the petitioners’ credentials, they also appeared for the test of their respective posts.

However, they were ignored after qualifying the test and were not called for final interviews. Instead, 19 candidates, whose names were not mentioned in the list of the successful candidates were appointed on the same posts.

According to the petition, Amir Mukhtiyar Awan was appointed as reader to district and sessions judge. Mohammad Jamil, Asif Ahsan, Abdul Hakeem, Shahid Mehmood and Kashif Jalal were appointed as clerks and Shabbir Hussain, Bilal Arshad, Majid Ali, Irfan, Saeed Qadir, Naseem, Noman, Osman and Umer Farooq were made junior clerks. “All of these names were not among the candidates who had qualified the test,” the petitioner had claimed.

The counsel pointed out that a newly-appointed reader Amir Mukhtiyar Awan was facing a criminal (land fraud) case (FIR No.348) in the session’s court and was currently on bail. His case was being heard in the court of a civil judge.

He contended that the respondents were under constitutional obligation to safeguard the interests of all the candidates because the way in which the appointments have been made was contrary to the fundamental rights and policy enshrined in the constitution.

The counsel requested the court to set aside the recent appointments made in the district courts and order re-advertising of all the posts. The court should ensure that the appointments are made strictly on merit, he added.

Justice Riaz Ahmad Khan, after hearing the arguments, issued notices to all the respondents while seeking their reply within two weeks.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2012.