ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: The Supreme Court asked the government on Thursday to take steps to reverse re-appointments on contract at the senior level in police and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

“Favouritism should end and, instead, deserving and talented officers be given a chance,” Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry observed, adding that appointments on merit were always in the interest of a government because good officers would take effective measures to improve law and order.

A bench comprising the chief justice, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Justice Mohammad Sair Ali, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday was hearing a case about mismanagement in the Haj operation.

The court adjourned the proceedings till Feb 10 and asked Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq to take up the issue with the authority concerned for rectification of any omission committed in such appointments.

He was asked to convey the order to Establishment Secretary Abdul Rauf Chaudhry and the provincial chief secretaries to ensure that any cases of reemployment of civil servants were examined in terms of the provisions of the law.

The court asked the federal and provincial governments to ensure that re-employments or employments on a contract basis were not made in violation of the law.

The government had earlier submitted a list of nine senior officers re-appointed on contract -- Sindh police chief Sultan Salahuddin Khattak, FIA Director General Waseem Ahmed, Sindh Intelligence Bureau (IB) Joint Director General Tariq Jamil, Sindh Traffic Deputy Inspector General Khurram Gulzar, Training DIG Nadir Hussain Khoso, IB Deputy Director General Asghar Mahmood, Larkana DIG Din Mohammad Baloch, Gilgit-Baltistan Headquarters DIG Lt-Col (retd) Farman Ali and Railway Police Additional IG Mian Akhtar Hayat.

The attorney general placed on record a summary about some police officers re-employed on contract.

Summaries for the promotion of four officers had been submitted by the departments concerned and five others had been promoted on verbal orders.

“Did the departments need these officers or the political masters needed them?” Justice Khosa asked, adding that this sounded more like a royal decree than rule of the law.

The court noted that the nine officers had been re-employed in disregard of Section 14 of the Civil Servants Act of 1973, the 2007 Esta Code's section on 're-employment' and judgments of superior courts.

“For establishing the rule of law and constitutionalism, it is necessary that the relevant provisions be followed strictly in letter and spirit. Otherwise, it would not be possible to provide an effective machinery in law, particularly in the police department, to ensure law and order and peace in the country,” the court observed.

It said the violation amounted to blocking the promotion of officers who had also served in the forces and were waiting for their promotion, but were not getting a chance because of the re-employment and contracts awarded to retired officers.

Such violations should also be strictly avoided in other departments for achieving good governance, it said. The court will be informed of any progress before the next hearing by the recently appointed Additional Director General of the FIA, Syed Javed Ali Bukhari, who is in charge of the investigation into the Haj scandal.

LOSS OF RS 200 MILLION: The official submitted a report, stating that a loss of Rs 200 million had been detected in the scam, but the court held the inquiry unsatisfactory and said a thorough investigation had not been conducted and many important aspects of the matter had been left out.

Mr Bukhari said FIA Director Hussain Asghar and his team were investigating the case in Saudi Arabia and all efforts were being made to arrest Ahmed Faiz Mohammad Shafi, allegedly the main culprit behind the scam.

He said he was also collecting details of a car offloaded in Sahiwal which allegedly belonged to Ali Qadir Gilani, son of the prime minister.

The ADG said that one Zain Sukhaira had also submitted a report before the court claiming that he had visited Saudi Arabia a number of times for business, but was now in Pakistan and was unemployed and that he was a childhood friend of Ali Qadir.