KARACHI, April 28: The Sindh High Court restrained the federal government on Friday from acting on the impugned recommendations of the central selection board for promotion of nine Grade-20 officers of the income tax group pending compliance with its order for reconsideration of the cases of three officers senior to them in accordance with the directions issued by it.
Khan M. Matiur Rahman, Iqbal Ahmed Jumani and Malik Bashir Ahmed, all senior Grade-20 officers of income tax group, had moved the high court against the selection board’s discriminatory policy. They maintained that they had better credentials for promotion to Grade-21 but the board ignored them in favour of nine junior officers despite Federal Service Tribunal / high court directions for reconsideration of their cases.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Ali Sain Dino Metlo, directed the board on April 6, 2006, to reconvene within two months to make recommendations in respect of the petitioner officers’ promotion within two months in accordance with the law and its directions containing guidelines.
The directions or guidelines dealt with correctness of information on an officer’s conduct; relevance or irrelevance of the previous supersession; eligibility threshold; overall assessment; and staff college training.
One of the petitioners, Iqbal Ahmed Jumani, approached the high court again through Advocate Shahenshah Hussain saying that the exercise ordered by the court had not yet been undertaken and the respondents (the selection board and the establishment division) were acting on the previous recommendations in favour of the nine officers junior to him.
A division bench, comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Gulzar Ahmed, noted the petitioner’s apprehension and issued notices to the respondents and a deputy attorney-general for May 3. In the meanwhile, no notification ‘regarding promotion within the department of officers in Grade-21’ shall be issued, the bench observed in its restraint order.
