ISLAMABAD, Sept 20: A division bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), comprising Justices Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and Mohammad Azim Khan Afridi, on Thursday reserved judgment on the appointment of Dr Shaheen Khan as chairperson of the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE).

On February 29, the IHC single bench of Justice Mohammad Anwar Khan Kasi, while hearing the petition of Nazir Aslam, declared the appointment of Ms Khan as illegal.

However, the IHC division bench after preliminary hearing of the appeal filed by Ms Khan on March 5 suspended the order of the single bench and allowed her to continue the job till the final adjudication of the case.

On Thursday, Abdul Hafeez Amjad, the counsel for Mr Aslam, told the court that Ms Khan was an employee of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and had been appointed as the FBISE head some three years back. After expiry of her tenure, her service was extended for another term without any consent from her parent department – the HEC.

Under the law, the term of a deputationist cannot be extended without the consent of the parent department, he contended.

He said the single bench of Justice Kasi had rightly observed that the competent authority had not followed the prescribed rules while borrowing Ms Khan’s services from the HEC and then extending her term.

The petition said the notification for the appointment of Ms Khan as chairperson FBISE was issued without the approval of the chairman HEC, and without fulfilling legal formalities she was promoted from BPS-20 to BPS-22.

Syed Iftikhar Hussain Gillani, the counsel for Ms Khan, maintained that FBISE was formed under a statute and there were certain remedial measures available in its procedure for correcting any wrongdoing of its officials. He claimed that Ms Khan possessed required qualifications for the post.

Abdul Rahim Bhatti, representing the FBISE, told the court that there was no need for taking consent of the chairman HEC for extending the service of Ms Khan.

He said the controlling authority of both the HEC and FBISE was the prime minister and both the organisations were working under the administrative control of the secretary ministry of education and training. Since the term of Ms Khan has been extended with the approval of the prime minister and the federal secretary education, the consent of HEC chairman was not needed and the appointment could not be declared illegal for this reason, he added.

He contended that the single bench had wrongly held that the FBISE chairperson was being given BPS-22 in pursuance of the decision of the FBISE board of governors, adding the board could only pass the recommendations for the upgradation, adding the federal government had neither approved the recommendations nor she had been promoted to the BPS-22.