Contract appointment: Dr Faqir earns coveted post at judicial academy

Secretary to former CJP is also likely to be transferred to the academy soon.

ISLAMABAD:

Chief Justice of Pakistan Tassaduq Hussain Jillani on Friday appointed the former Supreme Court registrar Dr Faqir Hussain as the director general of Federal Judicial Academy (FJA) on a one-year contract.

The CJP, who is chairman of FJA board of directors, appointed Dr Faqir as FJA DG, which is a grade 22 post. Similarly, former DG FJA Pervaiz Ali Chawla has been appointed as senior director of the academy.

On April 14, 2014, the President had promulgated an Ordinance for the amendment in Federal Judicial Academy Act 1997 and converted the academy into ‘Centre of Excellence for Law and Judicial Academy’.

After the reappointment of Dr Faqir as DG Centre of Excellence for Law and Judicial Academy, the sources also revealed to The Express Tribune that secretary to former chief justice, Chaudhry Hameed, is also likely to be transferred to the academy soon. They said that both officers have remained very close to Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry during his tenure as CJP.

A senior official in FJA told this correspoent that employees of the FJA are being deprived of their service promotion because no service rules exist for academy officials.

On October 6, 2010, around 62 employees of the academy had written a letter to then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, complaining that there are no rules for their promotion to the next grade.

In a five-page letter to the FJA chairman, they had requested the CJP that service rules for the employees should be framed with the setting up of a promotion board. Despite the CJP’s directive, the FJA’s administration has failed to finalise service rules for academy’s employees.

The official said that top brass of the academy is working on contract, therefore, they are not taking interest in framing the promotion rules for the academy’s employees.

Meanwhile, Supreme Court Bar Association president Kamran Murtaza has expressed concern over the appointment of Dr Faqir as DG FJA and raised question as to why the former registrar is being appointed on contract again and again. Kamran also stated that if Dr Faqir is indispensible then he should be appointed to this post for a lifetime.

It is to be noted that Dr Faqir had retired as SC registrar in 2009. However, he got two extensions as SC registrar. After facing immense criticism, Dr Faqir decided to relinquish the additional charge of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan’s (LJCP) secretary in 2011.

On the grounds of being time-barred, the Supreme Court has already dismissed last month a five-year-old plea against former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s decision to give the additional charge of LJCP secretary to Dr Faqir.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2014.