Unwarranted oversight: Court sends PM’s task force, its chief packing

PM’s principal secretary, CDA chief, task force chair issued notices.

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday suspended the appointment notice of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Islamabad in response to a petition filed by a citizen.

Shahid Akbar, a resident of Islamabad, filed a petition through former Islamabad Bar Association president Advocate Niazullah Niazi, challenging the appointment of Faisal Sakhi Butt as the chairman of Prime Minister’s Task Force on capital.

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui suspended the appointments of Butt as chairman of the task force and Nargis Faiz Malik and Asad Mumtaz Khan as its members. The court orders said, “The appointment order of the task force shall remain remained suspended and the chairman and its member shall not act as members and chairman of the task force.” The court also issued notices to Butt, CDA Chairman Engineer Farkhand Iqbal and Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Khushnood Lashari and sought their reply in the third week of June.

The counsel for the petitioner maintained that the principal secretary issued a notification appointing Butt as task force chairman in December, 2011 to oversee the affairs of the CDA.

He said that the task force has complete control of CDA affairs. “This is evident on the CDA website which says that the chairman issued directions to the CDA on various matters,” said Niazi.

He argued that the CDA is a statutory body under the CDA Ordinance, 1960. “The ordinance does not empower any office, person or authority to appoint a task force to oversee the authority’s work,” Niazi added. He maintained that appointing Butt as chairman is in gross violation of the CDA Ordinance and requested the court to suspend the appointment.

Counsel for the petitioner further argued that Khushnood Lashari has not clarified any lawful purpose for which an oversight task force was required for the CDA, making the entire exercise useless and a sheer waste of public funds.

Niazi informed the court that since his appointment, Butt has been attending CDA ceremonies as chief guest and attending official CDA meetings in violation of the ordinance. He adopted before the court that members of the task force have been running a media campaign by displaying posters of Butt in different parts of the city only for the purpose of self-projection.

He maintained that the task force’s members and chairman also used official protocol and enjoyed all powers and perks of the CDA, despite the fact that they were not authorised to be given any protocol or to utilise CDA resources.

Meanwhile, Butt also failed to submit his reply to a question asked by the same bench in a separate case last week — under what law was he exercising control over the CDA.

During the hearing on Monday, Butt’s counsel Munir Paracha, raised an objection instead of submitting a reply, arguing that the particular bench does not have the power to challenge the appointment of a person while hearing another petition against him, and also that the IHC does not have the power to take suo motu notice. The court directed him to submit his reply by June 3.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2012.