PHC restrains NAB from action against employees

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday restrained the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from taking any adverse action against the bureau employees, who have challenged the proficiency test by the NAB chairman after 16 years of their regular service.

A division bench comprising Justice Syed Afsar Shah and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim also directed the NAB prosecutor to ensure NAB chairman’s comments before November 5, the next date of hearing in the petition, otherwise the proficiency test would be stayed.

The petition was filed by assistant private secretaries of the NAB KP, including Asia Rehman, Ubaid, Manzoor Hussain and Ahmad Hussain, seeking suspension of the proficiency test to be held on November 6.

The petitioners also seek direction for the respondents not to hold the test, which they termed against the rules and law.

During hearing, the petitioners’ lawyer Fida Gul submitted that first the petitioners had been regularly appointed as stenographers in BPS-15. In 2011, he said, they were re-designated through a notification and then promoted as assistant private secretary (APS) on February 28, 2013.

He argued that the chairman National Accountability Bureau through a departmental letter issued on October 9 directed the petitioners across the country in all regional offices to attend the test on November 6 at their own expenses and threatened disciplinary proceedings in case of non-appearance, which is injustice on the part of the respondents.

The lawyer pointed out before the bench that there is no proficiency test in the Terms and Conditions of Service 2002 of the petitioners and neither mentioned in the rules and the current is not only against the law but also discrimination against the petitioners, whose job nomenclature has totally changed now.

Azeem Dad, the National Accountability Bureau prosecutor, submitted that the test was being conducted across the country and majority of the employees had given the test.