Another dismissal: Govt sends PEMRA chief packing

According to a notification Rashid Ahmad’s appointment was ‘illegal’.

ISLAMABAD: The government on Saturday dismissed the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) chairman, Rashid Ahmad, from his post.

“President Mamnoon Hussain has accepted and signed the advice of the prime minister to terminate the Pemra chairman declaring the appointment ab initio, void illegal and violative of Supreme Court of Pakistan’s guidelines and orders in the acting chairman Pemra case and in Khwaja Asif vs state case,” reads an official statement issued by the President House.

The appointment of Chaudhry Rashid was neither open nor transparent, the statement says. “Chaudhry Rashid, being Secretary Information and serving government employee, initiated a summary proposing himself as a candidate for the [post of] chairman Pemra without carrying out [an] open and transparent process of appointment,” it adds.

Chaudhry Rashid had been appointed chairman of the government’s media watchdog on January 28, 2013 by former president Asif Ali Zardari under Section 6 of Pemra Rules after a ruling of the apex court barred the then acting chairman of Pemra, Dr Abdul Jabbar, from holding office.

The appointment had been made for four years on conditions that the incumbent must be a 22-grade retired  officer, who could be removed after serving one month notice only if he resigned himself, or contracted some mental or physical ailment or was disabled by some accident.

Rashid’s appointment was, however, challenged by the incumbent federal minister for water and power, Khawaja Asif, in the Supreme Court.

Asif had argued that the appointment was not carried out in accordance with the January 15 order of the Supreme Court regarding the vacant Pemra chairman’s office.

At the time, the court had observed: “The position of Pemra chairman has to be filled by a person who fulfils the exceptional and stringent requirements prescribed in the Pemra Ordinance and not by a casual appointee.”

“Moreover, the appointment has to be made through an open and transparent process to ensure that the appointee meets the objective criteria specified in the Pemra Ordinance,” the order had stated.

Rashid, a former principal information officer, has also been accused of corruption in the past, with cases pending in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

A new Pemra chairman will be appointed by a commission formed on July 22, 2013 under the chairmanship of the Federal Tax Ombudsman Abdul Rauf Chaudhry, who is currently on leave.

Problematic appointment

According to sources in an earlier report, the summary of the appointment of Pemra chairman was initiated after the January 15 order of the Supreme Court. However, the date stated on the summary was January 8, prior to the apex court’s orders, and Ahmad was appointed to the post on January 26.

At the time of his appointment, Ahmad was a serving government official working as information and broadcasting secretary and was due to retire on May 26, 2013. Therefore, according to rules and regulations, the office of Pemra chairman fell vacant on May 26, 2013. However, Ahmad continued to serve as Pemra chairman and was not given a fresh contract on MP-1 scale.

Sources also revealed that the government wanted Ahmad to continue working as the media watchdog’s chairman. However, the Supreme Court has barred re-employment of public servants after retirement.

In a civil application filed before the Supreme Court in August, Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) had stated: “The criteria of the Pemra Ordinance were bypassed, no advertisements were placed in the national press and the fact that he was supposed to retire in a few months was not disclosed. This illegal appointment was done a month and a half before the interim government took over.”

It added that there was a conflict of interest in Rashid’s appointment as well.



“How can a candidate prepare the summary for his own appointment for a four-year tenure post… if this procedure is allowed by the apex court, the TIP fears that every retiring secretary will prepare summaries for their post-retirement appointment as ombudsmen, members of Public Service Commission, etc.”

According to the TIP, Rashid’s summary also violated the Rules of Business which stipulate that the summary must contain the dates of birth of the candidates recommended, among other relevant details, to indicate whether any of them would attain the age of superannuation before the tenure of the post expires.

Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid has said that the sacked Pemra chairman, Chaudhry Rashid, was accused of financial irregularities. He has been sacked according to a procedure laid down in the Constitution.

The summary sent to the President House also mentions financial irregularities as one of the reasons for his removal. “Chaudhry Rashid has no justification to challenge his sacking in the court of law,” added the minister.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2013