A judgment of the Balochistan High Court has resulted into a controversy regarding a NAB deputy director working on deputation as director of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) since May 2014.

A two-member BHC bench had declared the said official, Ziaullah Khan Toru, unfit to hold any post related to inquiry or investigation and stated that the competent authority might assign him a desk job preferably at the National Accountability Bureau’s Headquarters. While the court had delivered that verdict on Oct 17, 2012 the official was posted to the post of ACE’s director in 2014 by overlooking the court’s order.

“The manner in which the respondent No. 3 (Ziaullah) is acting, shows his personal interest into the matter, for the reasons best known to him. The conduct of the officer will not only damage the valued institution of the NAB, Balochistan, but it may also damage the high profile inquiry initiated in the affairs of the Commission. Under such circumstances, the respondent No 3 is not a fit person to be assigned any inquiry or investigation. The competent authority may assign him a desk job, preferably at the NAB Headquarter with no frequent contact with public,” states the judgment reported as “2013 PCr.LJ 405”.

The verdict was delivered by Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail and Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mengal in a case titled Balochistan Public Service Commission versus NAB. That case related to a raid conducted by official of NAB under supervision of Mr Toru, who was serving as NAB deputy director in Balochistan, on Sept 27, 2012 on the office of BPSC.

While the court declared the sanctioning of an inquiry against the BPSC on Oct 1, 2012 as legal, it declared the raid conducted by Mr Toru as illegal and also questioned how he had conducted the raid prior to sanctioning of the inquiry.

Mr Toru has filed a petition for leave to appeal against that verdict in the Supreme Court. So far the apex court has not granted him any interim relief and the findings of the BHC have still been in the field.

The services of Mr Toru were placed at the disposal of provincial government on the request of KP chief minister. The summary for acquiring his services on deputation was initiated from the CM Secretariat. On June 27, 2013 the CM Secretariat had sent a letter to the secretary of provincial establishment department wherein it was stated that the competent authority had desired that the services of Ziaullah Khan Toru, deputy director (BPS-18) NAB, headquarters Islamabad, may be requisitioned from director general, NAB Headquarters, Islamabad, on deputation for posting in the ACE, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In the light of that letter the KP chief secretary had on July 10, 2013 sent a letter to the NAB’s chairman, requesting that Mr Toru’s services may be placed at the disposal of provincial government on deputation. The NAB in July 2013 placed his services at the disposal of the provincial government. At that time he was serving as deputy director in Pakistan Manpower Institute, Islamabad, on deputation. Initially, he was posted as director industries by the KP government in Oct 2013 and subsequently he was posted as ACE director on May 19, 2014 by replacing the then incumbent Fayaz Ali Shah.

Interestingly, on Aug 25, 2015 the NAB sought repatriation of Mr Toru’s services in the light of the BHC judgment. “NAB’s human resource management division was not privy to the order of the court to post him at the NAB HQs. Although he has submitted that he filed a CPLA, yet it is requested that the services of the subject officer may be repatriated back to NAB immediately,” states a letter sent to the establishment department by NAB human resource division.

Recently, in two cases the BHC judgment has surfaced. One of the cases was a writ petition filed by Mr Toru against the letter of NAB to provincial government of Aug 25. Initially, his counsel Shakeel Ahmad in Sept 2015 requested the court to adjourn the case as some development was underway to resolve the matter.

Subsequently, on Jan 26, 2016, Mr Toru withdrew his writ petition as the issue was resolved and the provincial government had expressed willingness to continue with his services. The government in a letter to NAB had highlighted his performance as ACE’s director and had termed him most suitable person for the post.

Another writ petition was recently filed in the PHC by a former secretary local government, Aurangzeb Khan, against whom a case was registered by the ACE last year accusing him of misappropriating funds in purchase of computers for the local government department several years ago. He was arrested by the ACE on June 29, 2015 when he was serving as director general at the Prosecution Directorate, and he and three other suspects in the case were granted bail by the Peshawar district and sessions judge on July 8.

In his petition, Aurangzeb Khan has sought several reliefs from the court. He had requested that his suspension from service by the provincial government might be set aside as despite passage of around eight months no inquiry had so far been conducted against him. On Jan 19, a two-member bench of PHC declared his suspension illegal.

Mr Aurangzeb has also challenged the appointment of Mr Toru as ACE’s director in the light of the BHC verdict and requested the court to declare his posting against present post as illegal. On the same day the bench had issued notices to the provincial government, NAB and Mr Toru, asking them to explain their position in that regard.

Toru’s counsel Shakeel Ahmad stated that certain elements had been misconstruing the BHC order. He said that first of all that order was not directory in nature rather it was observations which were not binding on the competent authority. Secondly, he said that the post of ACE’s director was an administrative post, which did not come in the jobs prescribed by the BHC.

The counsel said that a leave to appeal petition against that order has been pending before the apex court. He added that Mr Toru was a competent officer and had improved the performance of ACE due to which certain elements were averse to him.

Another aspect of the whole issue is that the provincial establishment department is completely blank about the qualifications of Mr Toru. Last year certain queries were put to the department under the Right to Information Act, 2013 by a citizen of Peshawar, Amir Ahmad. In a query regarding the qualification of Mr Toru the department had replied “Not Known”.

To another question about since how long the said official has been on deputation with the provincial government and when it would end, the establishment department erroneously replied that he was on deputation with the provincial government since May 19, 2014 for an initial period of three years to be ended on May 18, 2017 whereas according to official documents he was on deputation since 2013.

When the applicant posed some more questions, the establishment department advised him to approach the NAB. Question arises when the provincial government had very little information about qualifications of the official then how his services was acquired on deputation.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2016