Rules violation: High court sets aside Lesco CEO’s appointment
Justice Umar Ata Bandial orders an appointment on merit.
LAHORE:
Lahore High Court Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Thursday set aside the appointment of Engineer Zia Latif as chief executive officer of the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco), declaring it unlawful and ordered a fresh on-merit appointment.
Bandial passed this order on a petition filed by Engineer Ghazanfar Ali Khan. He said the procedure to appoint Latif was illegal as he could not be appointed by the Ministry of Water and Power. He said the Lesco board of governors was the competent authority to appoint the CEO.
Khan had said in the petition that the Ministry of Water and Power had appointed Latif as the Lesco CEO on a contract basis in violation of rules and regulations. He said the Lesco, a registered company, was governed by its own rules and had its own board of governors. He said the ministry had no jurisdiction to unilaterally issue the notification of Latif’s appointment which was not even endorsed by the Lesco board of directors.
He had said the Lesco was constitutionally mandated to be an independent entity free from governmental and bureaucratic influences.
He had alleged that Latif had a service record full of departmental inquiries and allegations of corruption. He was also facing a number of corruption inquiries by the Federal Investigation Agency, the petitioner had said.
PARCO MD’s reply sought by 15th
The Lahore High Court on Thursday sought a reply from the managing director of the Pak Arab Refinery Company (Parco), by November 15, on a petition that has challenged the procurement of Euro II-compliant diesel buses by the Punjab government.
The court had earlier granted a stay order against opening of bids for the buses but had then vacated the stay order partially, allowing the government to purchase 100 buses for the Metro Bus System.
The petition has been filed by the Gujranwala City Tours (Pvt) Ltd through Tafazzul H Rizvi.
When the court resumed hearing on Thursday, the petitioner’s counsel repeated his argument that Euro II-compliant diesel was not available in the province.
The petitioner has submitted that the government wanted to purchase 1,200 Euro II-complaint diesel buses, which would be given to operators like the petitioner on a soft-term loan basis.
The government, says the petitioner, is about to spend a huge amount of money to procure the buses but the fuel required to run them is not available in the Punjab.
According to the petitioner’s counsel, the oil refineries have told the government they will be unable to supply Euro II-compliant diesel. He said he feared the project would be a failure like the government’s recent procurement of CNG buses. The buses, he said, were of no use for three days a week due to non-availability of CNG. He said the purchase of diesel buses would cost 45 per cent more and would be “a futile exercise and a waste of public money”.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 2nd, 2012.
Lahore High Court Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Thursday set aside the appointment of Engineer Zia Latif as chief executive officer of the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco), declaring it unlawful and ordered a fresh on-merit appointment.
Bandial passed this order on a petition filed by Engineer Ghazanfar Ali Khan. He said the procedure to appoint Latif was illegal as he could not be appointed by the Ministry of Water and Power. He said the Lesco board of governors was the competent authority to appoint the CEO.
Khan had said in the petition that the Ministry of Water and Power had appointed Latif as the Lesco CEO on a contract basis in violation of rules and regulations. He said the Lesco, a registered company, was governed by its own rules and had its own board of governors. He said the ministry had no jurisdiction to unilaterally issue the notification of Latif’s appointment which was not even endorsed by the Lesco board of directors.
He had said the Lesco was constitutionally mandated to be an independent entity free from governmental and bureaucratic influences.
He had alleged that Latif had a service record full of departmental inquiries and allegations of corruption. He was also facing a number of corruption inquiries by the Federal Investigation Agency, the petitioner had said.
PARCO MD’s reply sought by 15th
The Lahore High Court on Thursday sought a reply from the managing director of the Pak Arab Refinery Company (Parco), by November 15, on a petition that has challenged the procurement of Euro II-compliant diesel buses by the Punjab government.
The court had earlier granted a stay order against opening of bids for the buses but had then vacated the stay order partially, allowing the government to purchase 100 buses for the Metro Bus System.
The petition has been filed by the Gujranwala City Tours (Pvt) Ltd through Tafazzul H Rizvi.
When the court resumed hearing on Thursday, the petitioner’s counsel repeated his argument that Euro II-compliant diesel was not available in the province.
The petitioner has submitted that the government wanted to purchase 1,200 Euro II-complaint diesel buses, which would be given to operators like the petitioner on a soft-term loan basis.
The government, says the petitioner, is about to spend a huge amount of money to procure the buses but the fuel required to run them is not available in the Punjab.
According to the petitioner’s counsel, the oil refineries have told the government they will be unable to supply Euro II-compliant diesel. He said he feared the project would be a failure like the government’s recent procurement of CNG buses. The buses, he said, were of no use for three days a week due to non-availability of CNG. He said the purchase of diesel buses would cost 45 per cent more and would be “a futile exercise and a waste of public money”.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 2nd, 2012.