Alleged nepotism in appointments, promotions

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday issued a notice to speakers of the National Assembly, KP Assembly and two legislators in a writ petition seeking their disqualification for allegedly promoting nepotism in appointments and promotions in the provincial assembly during their tenures.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Afsar Shah and Justice Muhammad Ayub Khan issued a notice to Speaker National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, Provincial Minister Amjad Ali and MPA Rangez Khan.

They were directed to submit reply in the writ petition within 14 days. The June 20 date was fixed for the next hearing.

The bench also issued a notice to Election Commission of Pakistan to submit its reply in the petition. Shah Faisal, a resident of Nowshera district filed a petition, seeking disqualification of the speakers of the National Assembly and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and two MPAs for allegedly promoting nepotism during appointments and promotions in the provincial assembly during their tenures.

The petitioner requested the court to either disqualify National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on account of carrying out illegal and unconstitutional activities in his stint as the speaker of the provincial assembly or refer the matter to the Election Commission of Pakistan for decision.

He requested the court to disqualify current speaker of the KP Assembly Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani and MPAs Dr Amjad Ali and Rangez Khan by annulling the ECP’s August 7 notification of their election as members of the provincial assembly, in line with Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution.

During the arguments, the petitioner’s lawyer, Ali Azim Afridi mentioned several judgments of the Peshawar High Court and KP Services Tribunal, mostly related to appointment and promotion of officers in the assembly during the tenure of Asad Qaiser and Mushtaq Ghani.

He submitted that the petitioner relied on the Services Tribunal’s December 10 judgment, which held both assembly speakers responsible for promoting cronyism and nepotism at the cost of merit and transparency.

“By now it has been established beyond any shadow of a doubt that the former and the present speaker, etc have one point agenda to promote cronyism, nepotism and favouritism at the cost of merit, transparency, fairness, equality and justice,” the petitioner quoted the court as declared in the judgment.

The lawyer said the tribunal had ruled: “It amounts to misuse of official authority and is open to cognizance/judicial scrutiny by the quarters concerned.”

The tribunal had accepted the appeal of a senior additional secretary of the assembly, Kifayatullah Khan Afridi, and declared illegal the August 11, 2017, decision of the Departmental Promotion Committee and the August 15, 2017, notification of the then assembly speaker, Asad Qaiser, for the promotion of an officer junior to him, Nasrullah Khan, as the secretary.

The petitioner referred to the judgment, which declared: “Before parting with the judgment, apprehensions are lurking in our mind that adverse findings of this Tribunal may pique the ego of respondents and in line with their tradition possibility of again violating the court/tribunal orders cannot be ruled out.”

He also referred to two high court judgments declaring illegal on November 13, 2018, the appointment of a special secretary and upgrading of the post of director (automation and IT) in the provincial assembly.

The petitioner claimed that while an appeal was pending with the tribunal in September 2018, the DPC, which also had two MPAs as members, had again recommended the promotion of Nasrullah leading to the issuance of a notification by present Speaker Mushtaq Ghani on September 25, last year, for his appointment as the assembly’s secretary.

The petitioner said public functionaries had to reinforce good governance, observe rules strictly and adhere to the rule of law in public service.

He said the two speakers and MPAs had flouted the law on several occasions just to benefit the respondent (KP Assembly secretary) and had allowed their personal interest to influence official conduct.