SHC allows former IB official to continue serving as PA assistant secretary

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the Sindh Assembly secretary to allow a former Intelligence Bureau (IB) sub-inspector to join as assistant secretary by withdrawing a notification with regard to his repatriation.

The direction came on a petition of Zubair Javed who had challenged the notification with regard to his repatriation from the Sindh Assembly secretariat to his parent department IB.

A counsel for the petitioner submitted that he was working as a sub-inspector in the IB and had applied for the post of the Sindh Assembly assistant secretary after obtaining a no-objection certificate from the competent authority.

The counsel submitted that the petitioner was appointed as the assistant secretary after a competitive process and he was relieved from the IB to join his present duties.

He said that neither had the petitioner been appointed on a transfer basis nor was he an absorbed employee as he was appointed through a due process of initial appointment through a proper channel.

Counsels for the state and respondent submitted that the present petition was not maintainable before the court on the premise that the grievance of the petitioner fell within the domain of the Sindh Service Tribunal as mandated by the Article 212 of the Constitution.

They said that in case, the petitioner made a representation/departmental appeal to the competent authority of the provincial assembly on verification of his service/selection record and personal file, he would be provided the fair opportunity to prove his case for retention in the respondent assembly subject to his service profile.

They further submitted if the petitioner was yet aggrieved by the order passed on his appeal, he could file an appeal before the Sindh Service Tribunal under the Section 4 of the Sindh Service Tribunal Act, 1973.

It was argued that the high court did not have the jurisdiction to hear the case under the Article 212 of the Constitution.

A division bench of the high court comprising Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto and Justice Adnanul Karim Memon after hearing the arguments of the case observed that matters of terms and conditions of service of the employees of the Sindh Assembly were regulated by the Sindh Assembly Secretariat (Recruitment) Rules, 1974 read with the Sindh Provincial Assembly Secretariat (Appointment, Promotion, and Transfer) Rules, 1975 and other enabling laws.

The SHC observed that it appeared from the record that the petitioner was appointed as an assistant secretary (BS-18) in the Sindh Assembly through a competitive process vide a notification on February 20, 2019, and the impugned notification issued by the secretary of the

Sindh Assembly was based on erroneous premises for the simple reason that the

petitioner had neither been shown working on deputation nor absorbed in the secretariat of the provincial assembly.

The bench observed that case of the petitioner was not covered by the Supreme Court judgment with regard to repatriation of deputationist and absorbed employees.

The SHC allowed the petition and directed the competent authority of the provincial assembly to withdraw the impugned notification with regard to repatriation of the petitioner to his former department and directed him to allow to join the provincial assembly of Sindh as an assistant secretary (BS-18).