Restraining order: Court stays PIMS official’s probable promotion

Establishment secretary, CAD secretary and Warraich sent notices.

ISLAMABAD:

A capital court on Friday restrained the government from promoting the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) executive director (ED) as vice chancellor of  Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) till February 21.

The Islamabad High Court’s Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui passed the restraining order in response to a petition filed by Pims Joint Executive Director (JED) Dr Altaf Hussain challenging Pims ED Dr Riaz Ahmed Warraich’s likely promotion.

Justice Siddiqui issued notices to the establishment secretary, capital administration development secretary and Warraich and sought their comments in two weeks.

Shoaib Shaheen, the petitioner’s counsel said, “Warraich may be promoted as vice chancellor despite the fact that he is not qualified for this post.” He argued that over 22 years of experience was required for this post and Warraich had neither the requisite experience nor qualification.

The draft bill for SZABMU was tabled in the National Assembly and is likely to be approved in the next session.



Police chief summoned

In another case, the same bench summoned the capital’s police chief in-person on February 19 to explain why no action had been taken against a constable for refusing to vacate a flat allotted to another.

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Bani Amin has been summoned in response to a petition moved by a government employee against an official for occupying a flat located in Sector G-6.

Ghazanfar Shah had requested the court to direct Constable Muhammad Tariq to vacate his flat.

During the course of hearing a representative from the estate office informed the court that, “Police officials have occupied the flats and their colleagues are reluctant to action against them.”

Justice Siddiqui directed the estate officer to submit a complete record of the flats occupied by police officials. Over 210 flats in G-6 which were constructed by the CDA in 1997 at a cost of Rs250 million. Most of them were taken over by police officials during the Lal Masjid operation in 2007.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2013.