PESHAWAR, Aug 30: The Peshawar High Court has stayed the direct recruitment of nine officials in BPS-17 in the local government department and has sought comments from the provincial local government secretary and the Local Council Board chairman.

A bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rasheed and Justice Irshad Qaiser directed the government not to make the said appointments until the next hearing fixed for ???

The bench was hearing a writ petition by several officials belonging to the provincial unified group officials, who are in BPS-16 and have been seeking promotion to BPS-17.

Mohammad Essa Khan, lawyer for the petitioners, said his clients were BPS-16 employees of different town and tehsil councils.

He contended that under the relevant rules vacancies in BPS-17 in the local government department should be filed 50 per cent through promotion and rest through direct appointments.

He said recently, the provincial government had advertised nine posts in BPS-17 to be filled through direct recruitment. He pointed out that 13 posts in BPS-17 were filled through promotion in 2007 and subsequently 14 other posts were filled through promotion in 2009. Similarly, he said 20 posts were filled through direct recruitment in 2008 and subsequently 16 other posts were also filled through direct recruitment.

Mr Essa said 27 posts had so far been filed by promotion and 36 by direct appointment. He said this time, it was the right of the petitioners to be promoted against the said nine posts. He added that as last time the posts were filled through direct appointment and the number of direct appointments were more than those filled through promotion, therefore the act of the provincial government was illegal.

He requested the court to stay these appointments as prima facie the petitioners had a strong case and if these were filled then the petitioners would face irreparable loss.

Meanwhile, the bench also issued show cause notice to the Chitral district coordination officer for not releasing a detainee in accordance with the court’s order.

The bench also issued directives to the DCO to free the detainee, Mian Mukhtar Gul, who has been detained under section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO).

Yasir Khattak, lawyer for the petitioner, said the petitioner was arrested on the order of the Chitral DCO on July 28 under the MPO for a period of one month. He said the petitioner moved the high court against the said order of the DCO and the bench ordered on Aug 16 to set the detainee free.

The lawyer said instead of releasing the petitioner, the DCO renewed his detention order few days ago and ordered his detention for another month.

He added that the petitioner had to spend the festival of Eid inside prison.

He said the DCO had violated the order of the high court and had thus committed contempt of the court. He requested the bench to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the DCO.

The bench decided to issue show cause notice to the DCO asking him to clarify why he had violated the court’s order.