Only by the book: Nothing illegal about transfers, insists premier’s office

ISLAMABAD:

The head of the caretaker administration on Monday fended off suggestions that a spate of postings and transfers ordered by Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso was anything else but aboveboard.

Shafqat Jalil, a spokesman for the Prime Minister House, decried the ‘wrong, malicious and misleading’ impression in the media about postings and transfers ordered by the caretaker government, insisting that “all postings and transfers” were made after “due diligence, examination and deliberations in consultation with the Establishment Division”.

The rebuttal came within hours of a warning by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz to the caretaker government that it should not cross its mandate by making undue transfers and postings in important departments.

On Monday, Khawaja Muham­mad Asif, a PML-N leader, approached the Supreme Court to challenge the recent postings and transfers by the caretaker government. In his petition, Asif appealed to the apex court to declare unlawful all the transfers and postings made by Khoso. He pointed out names of the heads of National Highway Authority, NEPRA, Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited, SSGPL, Pakistan Minerals Development Corporation, National Fertilizer, OGDCL, State Life Corporation, PTDC, Pakistan Software Export Board, FIA, and heads of different departments of PTA as they were transferred without the mandate of the government

However, the spokesman for the PM House said that no new appointments had been made against the removal of managing directors or chief executive officers. He said that acting rights had been given to the next senior most official in every corporation till the new government appoints new heads. He added that all appointments were made purely on merit. Regarding Khoso’s sons, the spokesman said they had been posted in Sindh instead of Balochistan due to security concerns.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2013.