Intra-court appeal: IHC cancels verdict on Mirza’s dismissal

The court also overturns orders for reimbursement of amount received by Yousaf Baig Mirza as salary from PTV.

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday repealed the IHC’s earlier verdict for the dismissal of Pakistan Television Corporation’s (PTV) former managing director Yousaf Baig Mirza.

The IHC two-judge bench – comprising Riaz Ahmed Khan and Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi – also overturned the earlier order for reimbursement of the amount received by Mirza as salary and his 3% commission from the PTV revenues.

The court ordered that all the legal formalities must be observed to appoint the organisation’s new managing director. The lawyer, representing the PTV, assured the court that the advertisements, seeking application for the post of new MD had been published and the interview process was under way.



In April 2013, a single-judge IHC bench – headed by Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui – had dismissed Yousaf Baig Mirza, on a petition of the PTV’s former MD Ashraf Azeem and had declared the procedure of his appointment ‘non-transparent’.

Earlier, at the intra-court hearing, Mirza’s lawyer Naeem Bukhari contended that the single-judge bench had gone beyond its jurisdiction and provided relief, which the petitioner had not even requested.

He told the court that Mirza – during his two and a half year tenure at the PTV – had helped the organisation generate around Rs250 crore only in terms of advertising revenue and had received salaries and other benefits according to his contract.

Naeem informed the court that his client had joined another big media group and did not want to rejoin Pakistan Television.

It must be noted that during the previous hearing the counsel for the PTV’s caretaker MD had levelled allegations against ministry of information.

On the other hand, the counsel for the ministry had claimed that the organisation had sustained severe financial losses during the 8-month tenure of the PTV’s caretaker Managing Director Qazi Mustafa Kamal, who allegedly did not allow the PTV to take part in the bidding of advertising rights and gave a private channel’s sport network a new lease of life.

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