Ministry’s interference in PSB matters raises legal questions

ISLAMABAD: With cricket already out of their grasp and a few other departments completely made independent, the Ministry for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) has now virtually taken over the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) against the laid down constitution and the decision of Islamabad High Court that directed all the concerned to allow the board work independently.

The PSB is not only a separate entity, it also holds its constitution and working parameters fully covered by the law of the land. When the ministry handed over Rs240 million contract to PWD during Dr Fehmida Mirza’s tenure as the minister, the former IHC chief justice Athar Minallah (now a judge of Supreme Court) passed a verdict, mentioning that action should be taken against all those guilty of awarding a contract to the PWD against the laid down PSB rules and the spent amount must be recovered from those found guilty. Years have passed but the ministry has yet to take any action against the culprits.

A PSB’s notification issued on April 1, 2024, clearly depicts the growing interference of the ministry in the PSB’s matters. The notification says: “Worthy secretary Ministry for IPC during his visit to PSB’s facilities on March 28, has passed the following discussion (directions) which are required to be implemented in letter and spirit by the concerned wings.”

A few of the directions given by the ‘worthy secretary’ include calling on the swimming federation to conduct events at the pool, and arrange meetings with different sports federations, sports persons, and technical officials with the secretary IPC. Printing of brochures of sports facilities, list of federations’ sports activities, designing PSB portal within two weeks, organization of sports awards, Islamabad Games, advertisement for pre-qualification of Air Travelling Agency and a few others.

According to the Rules of Business, the PSB director general has all the executive powers to run day-to-day PSB’s affairs and is responsible for issuing all these directions. Secretary IPC or any other ministry official cannot intervene in any way in managing day to day affairs of the Board.

According to the Rule of Business, the only responsibility of the ministry is to approve the PSB budget. It has nothing to do with the administrative powers which completely rests with the DG.

If the DG feels that the decision on any particular issue is beyond his capacity, he can forward the matter to the PSB Board headed by the minister. The DG needs no lawful directions from the ministry to run day-to-day affairs and perform duties that directly come under his powers.

Surprisingly, the PSB is under the clout of the ministry and it is allowed to work independently. Recently, the Pakistan Football Federation’s (PFF) Normalization Committee (NC) organized a national team match against Jordan. The PSB was kept totally out of the organisational details and even it was not allowed to take Rs1 million as venue charges. The directions coming out of the ministry for the PSB were to extend facilities as demanded by the NC. So much so that no PSB official was seen watching the match. Recently a junior officer at the PSB was given the look-after charge to carry out DG’s day-to-day responsibilities in the absence of Shoaib Khoso who is on leave.

Deputy DG Administration Mansoor Ahmed Khan who is the senior most and was the most deserving officer for the look-after charge was completely ignored. Mansoor also wrote a letter to the secretary IPC to show his grievances.

The letter says: “The undersigned intends to draw your attention toward the management position scales policy approved by the prime minister and notified by the Establishment Division. The post of PSB Director General (DG) is MP-II Scale Position and the appointment of the DG PSB is made in accordance with the provisions of MP Scale Policy and DG PSB (Appointment) Rules, 2020.

The ex-Pakistan leave was granted to the DG from 29th March to 7th April 2024 and meanwhile the look-after charge of the post was granted to a junior Deputy DG. Moreover, the promotion of the said junior DDG was challenged in Islamabad High Court in W.P.No.1072/2014 (Annex-A).

The IHC declared promotion of the said DDG in violation of the direct quota and set aside the promotion. He filed intra-court appeal No.354/2020 in the IHC in which interim relief was granted to him till the next date of hearing (Annex-8). This means that his promotion in BPS-19 as DDG is not yet confirmed.