ISLAMABAD: A letter bearing the ‘signature’ of a Supreme Court official and received by the managing director of Pakistan Television (PTV), Yousuf Baig Mirza, has turned out to be fake.

The letter dated July 25 and bearing number HRC-35997-G/2010 was ‘issued’ by the Human Rights Cell of the court to the MD to halt recruitments without first advertising them in the media. “Otherwise, strict legal action would be taken,” the fake letter said.

Additional registrar of the court Sajid Mehmood Qazi, when contacted, confirmed that the letter purportedly issued by the Supreme Court office was counterfeit, also conceding that this was not the first time that such an incident had taken place since similar fake letters in the name of the Supreme Court had been received by different departments in the past.

Last year, the Supreme Court office issued a letter to the Cabinet Secretariat advising them to confirm whenever they received any directives on behalf of the court. Similar directives were also issued to police officials in the past, asking them to be careful.

A source in the court confided that the court might register a complaint regarding the issuance of the fake letter since no computer record was available to show that it had been generated from the office.

Sources in the PTV told Dawn that after receiving the letter, the MD consulted his legal team and senior officials and soon it transpired that it was fake. They said the letter carried many mistakes and contradictions.

At the beginning it asked the MD to stop hiring and at the end asked him to continue with postings. Moreover, they said, upon checking, it was found that the letter was not on the order sheet of the court. When the Supreme Court registrar was contacted, he confirmed that it was a fake letter.

The sources said the PTV management was considering moving an application asking the court to hold an inquiry into the issuance of the fake letter which had attempted to malign the court by creating an impression that there had been links between the court and the intelligence agencies.

The confidential letter purportedly carrying the signatures of HR Cell Director Amir Nazir Bhatti and based on a report of intelligence agencies of Pakistan states that: “Take notice that in pursuance of order of the honourable chief justice of Pakistan you are required to stop recruiting manpower immediately.”

It alleged that appointments had been made over the past five years on a political basis and called for advertisement of posts through the media and implementation of the recruitment policy of filling 30 per cent posts from eligible candidates within the organisation, 35 per cent from the prime minister’s internship programme and 35 per cent from other sources.

The letter was received by the PTV MD’s office on Aug 1.