PHC moved against suspension of official

PESHAWAR: A division bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday sought comments from chairman of the Board of Directors and secretary Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation in a writ petition filed against suspension of an official after he raised an issue of illegal appointment of the managing director.

A division bench comprising Justice Roohul Amin and Justice Qalandar Ali Khan sought comments from the respondents over

the appointments of the managing director of Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation before the next hearing.

The bench issued notice in a writ petition filed by Fazal Naeem, director finance, Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation, against his suspension and appointment of the managing director of the foundation.

During hearing, the petitioner’s lawyer Afroz Ahmad submitted that the petitioner was appointed director finance in the foundation, which was an autonomous body and established under the Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation ordinance No XXX 2002.

He submitted that under Section 7 of the ordinance there shall be a managing director appointed by the chairman Board of Directors through open merit.

The lawyer submitted that an advertisement was published for appointment of the MD and respondent No 6 (Zulfiqar Ahmad) was appointed to the post.

He took charge on August 1, last year, but later it came in the notice of some officials that respondent No 6 had been appointed in violation of the prescribed qualifications mentioned in the advertisements.

The petitioner submitted that the petitioner on the direction of the assistant director audit asked the officials to provide credentials (documents) of the MD as to check whether his appointment was made on merit or not.

As consequences, he said, the respondent MD requested the chairman of the Board of Directors through confidential letter to dismiss the petitioner and resultantly through a notification issued on February 14, 2018 he was suspended from the job.

It was pointed out before the bench that suspension of the petitioner from job was through malafide intention as action was taken when he point put illegal appointment of the MD and asked for providing documents to the assistant director audit.

The lawyer requested the court to suspend the suspension order of the petitioner till disposal of the case and declare the appointment of the MD as illegal and against

the law.