Promotions reverted: CJP cancels decisions of predecessors

Ex-chief justices allegedly granted out-of-turn promotions

ISLAMABAD:

Chief Justice of Pakistan Nasirul Mulk has cancelled the administrative decisions taken by his two predecessors where they had granted promotion to some officials of the Supreme Court during the last days of their tenure.

The sources revealed to The Express Tribune that in the last days of his tenure, former CJ Tassaduq Hussain Jillani had promoted three stenographers namely Khuram Shahzad, Arif and Sadaqat from grade 16 to grade 18 but now they have been reverted in their earlier posts.

Earlier, the secretary to former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Chaudhry Abdul Hameed, was demoted and transferred to the Supreme Court’s Quetta registry.

According to SC officials, Hameed is now serving as a protocol officer of the top court in Quetta, a grade 18 post as opposed to the grade 20 post he held under ex-CJ. Towards the end of his tenure, Chaudhry promoted Hameed, then serving as his protocol officer, to grade 19 but gave him charge as the secretary to the chief justice, a grade 20 post.

Meanwhile, a senior Federal Judicial Academy (FJA) official, Muhammad Saleem Ahmad, has been permanently absorbed into the Supreme Court as a ‘librarian’, a grade 19 post, a senior SC official said.

He said that Saleem, who hails from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, was appointed in the apex court on deputation basis five years ago. The same official was found ‘guilty’ in a matter related to purchase of old printer on higher price during the tenure of former CJ Chaudhry but no corrective action was taken against him.

The Express Tribune has also learnt that the service of Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan’s (LJCP) secretary Raja Muhammad Ikhlaq Hussain has been returned to Lahore High Court. Presently, SC Registrar Tahir Shahbaz is given the extra charge of secretary to LJCP.

Ikhlaq Hussain was a district and sessions judge in Punjab but he was appointed as the LJCP secretary on a two-year deputation in May 2013 by former CJ Chaudhry.

It has been revealed that the LJCP’s rules have been amended in the past and the chief justice was authorised to appoint anyone, including members of the bar, judicial officers, teachers etc, against the LJCP secretary post.

Speaking on the issue, former Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Kamran Murtaza said that whenever a rule contravenes any basic law (ordinance) then the law prevails as it is the basic principle.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2014.