Officers’ postings: SHC stays transfer of female officer away from family

Petitioner claims memorandum allows female officer to be posted where her family resides.

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has stayed the transfer of the female director general of the Board of Investment from Karachi to Peshawar. The transfer was allegedly in violation of the official memorandum that allows the posting of a female government officers at the place of working or residence of their spouse.

Nasreen Ali had taken the secretary of the Cabinet Division and the Board of Investment to the court for transferring her away from her family who reside in Karachi. The petitioner, who is currently working as Board of Investment DG in BPS-20, told the judges that she had worked with honesty and successfully fought against malpractices and corruption in the department due to which she had suffered a lot at the hands of her superiors.

Referring to a recent example of victimisation, Ali said that she was transferred through a notification issued on February 4, which relieved her from the post of the director general of the Board of Investment Karachi and directed her to report to the regional office of the Board of Investment Peshawar with immediate effect.

The main ground taken by the officer in her plea was the 'Office Memorandum' dated April 21, 2006, issued by the deputy secretary of the Cabinet Division. The memorandum reads that due to socio-economic problems and hardships faced by husbands working in government service due to posting at different stations of duty, it was decided to facilitate the postings of the husbands and wives at the same stations and posting of unmarked female civil servants at the place of residence of their parents or families.

The memorandum further states that with a view to facilitate those female government servants, whose spouse are not in government service or employed in the private sector or unemployed, it has been decided to extend the facility to this class of government servants also to be able to serve at the place of residence of their spouses.

Tassawar Hussain Hashmi, the lawyer representing the petitioner, submitted a statement, informing the judges that the Federal Service Tribunal was not functioning due to the non-appointment of its chairperson. The officer had therefore invoked the constitutional jurisdiction of the high court since she was unable to seek remedy from the tribunal, she said.

"Prima facie, it appears that the Office Memorandum mentioned above has not been considered while deciding the petitioner's transfer," observed the head of the bench, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar.

Riazul Hassan, the Director of the Board of Investment, who was present along with the provincial law officer, requested for time to file comments.

Allowing the request, the bench directed them to file comments by February 21. "Meanwhile, the operation of the notification dated February 4 to the extent of transfer of the petitioner is suspended," the bench ordered.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2014.