Court proceedings: Appointments of 44 FIA officials declared illegal

Government asked to send deputed officers back to their parent departments.

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday declared the appointments of 44 officers working in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on deputation as illegal.

Hearing a petition filed by Deputy Director FIA Saifullah Johio among other petitioners, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui asked the government to send the officers back to their parent departments.

During the proceedings, the petitioners’ counsel, Advocate Shah Khawar, said the FIA has appointed 10 officers on deputation from other government departments in BPS-19, 15 in BPS-18, 13 in BPS-17 and six in BPS-16.

This, he said, violates mandatory provisions of the FIA act 1974.

He argued that FIA authorities had started requisitioning and eventually absorbing officers from other government and semi-government departments, as well as autonomous bodies, to senior level positions.

This, he said, resulted in blocking promotions of dozens of FIA employees.

He pointed out that appointments in BPS-19 can only be made through promoting officers in BPS-18 who are working for the FIA on a regular basis.

Similarly, while appointing officers in BPS-18, 50% vacancies should be made through promotions and the rest should be allocated to the police.



Advocate Khawar informed the court that employees of National Database and Registration Authority were being absorbed in BPS-19 which violates the agency’s rules.

He added that the officers on deputation were untrained and were compromising the agency’s performance.

Separately, Advocate Sharjil Shiekh, representing the officer appointed on deputation as a forensic expert, claimed his client was in fact an expert in the field and was appointed on deputation. However, Justice Siddiqui was not convinced by his argument and said the officer should be sent back to his parent department.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2013.