PESHAWAR: A writ petition was filed in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) Tuesday seeking disqualification of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker, minister for mines and minerals and member provincial assembly for violating their oath and the court’s decisions.
Shah Faisal, a resident of Pabbi in the Nowshera district, filed the petition through a lawyer, Ali Azeem Afridi.
KP Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, Minister for Mines and Minerals Dr Amjad Ali, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Member Provincial Assembly Rangez Ahmad, former KP Assembly speaker and now National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, Wakeel Khan Deputy Secretary (Admin) KP Assembly, Election Commission of Pakistan, registrars, Service Tribunal, Peshawar High Court, auditor general of Pakistan and KP Assembly secretary were made parties to the petition.
It was submitted in the petition that KP Assembly Speaker (Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani) had taken the oath to discharge his duties and perform functions honestly and faithfully in accordance with the Constitution, the law and the rules of the assembly. Similarly, it said the provincial minister Dr Amjad Ali and MPA Rangez Ahmad had also taken the oath not to allow the personal interest to influence the official conduct or official decisions. The petitioner claimed that a departmental promotion committee comprising three members including Dr Amjad Ali, Rangez Ahmad and Wakeel Khan, Deputy Secretary (Admin) KP Assembly, was constituted for the promotion of assembly employees from BPS-17 and above. It said the departmental promotion committee recommended promotion of certain officers including Nasrullah Khan (additional secretary) to the post of secretary KP Assembly, in violation of the court’s decisions and the law.
It was stated in the petition that as per the high court and Supreme Court decisions, Nasrullah is junior to two additional secretaries, including Kifayatullah and Ghulam Sarwar. However, he said, the KP Assembly speaker despite the court’s verdicts declared the promotion of Nasrullah as KP Assembly secretary against the law and set aside his promotion as KP Assembly secretary. It said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Services Tribunal has in its judgment held the current and former speakers of the provincial assembly, Asad Qaiser and Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani respectively, responsible for promoting cronyism and nepotism during appointments to the assembly secretariat.
“By now it has been established beyond any shadow of doubt that the former and the present speakers, etc. have one point agenda to promote cronyism, nepotism and favouritism at the cost of merit, transparency, fairness, equality and justice,” the three-member Service Tribunal ruled in a detailed judgment on an appeal against the appointment of a junior officer Nasrullah Khan as the secretary of the assembly. “It amounts to a misuse of the official authority and is open to cognisance/judicial scrutiny by the quarters concerned,” the service tribunal stated in the judgment. Accepting an appeal of senior additional secretary Kifayatullah Khan Afridi on December 10, 2018, the tribunal had declared illegal the August 11, 2017, decision of the Departmental Promotion Committee and the August 15, 2017, notification by the then assembly speaker and current National Assembly Speaker, Asad Qaiser, of the promotion of an officer junior to him, Nasrullah Khan, as the secretary. However, it said, once again the Departmental Promotion Committee recommended Nasrullah as KP Assembly secretary and the KP Assembly speaker again approved him as assembly secretary.