ISLAMABAD: In an unusual case, two former brigadiers of the army have challenged their reinstatement orders after retirement before the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Rawalpindi bench. They have claimed that their reinstatement can have a negative impact on their retirement benefits.

Brigadiers Sohail Akbar Khan and Ghulam Murtaza Qureshi filed petitions before the LHC through their counsel retired Brig Wasaf Khani Niazi, who was a former judge advocate general of the army.

Brig Khan has worked in the Corps of Military Intelligence and has served as sector commander in Karachi and Brig Qureshi was an officer of Electrical and Mechanical Engin­eering (EME) Corps.

In his petition, Brig Khan contended that he was commissioned in the army on Oct 7, 1988 in Infantry Regiment and due to his aptitude and performance, he was inducted in corps of Military Intelligence in December 1996.

Both petitioners ask LHC to set aside the orders that have recalled their services

He was later sent to the United Nations on deputation. After returning to the country he again joined the professional course and was assigned challenging tasks as a senior intelligence officer.

According to the petition, as Karachi sector commander of an intelligence set-up from August 2014 to April 2016, Brig Khan was decorated with a gallantry award of Sitara-i-Jurat.

He was later posted to General Headquarters. From January to March 2018, the petitioner was called by Personnel Service Directorate (PS Dte) and asked to explain his assets, the petition said, adding the petitioner had been regularly submitting all these details through departmental declarations as well as to the Federal Board of Revenue through wealth returns.

On April 30, 2018, the petition said, Brig Khan received an order for his retirement from service and he proceeded on Leave Preparatory to Retirement. He was reinstated later as his services were recalled by the GHQ.

The officer claimed in the petition that the order for his reinstatement was illegal. It said, the “retirement order was illegally re-called since the orders [for his retirement] stood executed”.

The petition said, “it is an established fact that federal government was empowered to retire any officer in terms of Pakistan Army Act”. He said that his reinstatement “was an afterthought, mala fide and to cover up their illegal act of recalling the order which stood implemented / executed and thus was liable to [be] struck down”.

The case of Brig Qureshi is identical. In this case, the authorities concerned sent him on retirement, recalled his service and then dismissed him from service.

Brig Qureshi adopted in the petition that he was commissioned in the EME Corps of the army in 1986. He also worked in the UN on deputation and from August 2008 to December 2014 worked in the Heavy Industries Taxila.

He said in 2015 the authorities summoned him to inquire about his assets and he was suspended later on. Finally, he was retired from service but in April 2016 he was again asked to appear before the PS Dte.

In 2017, his retirement order was recalled and he was reinstated to the job but this was done to again terminate his service “due to fault”. The second termination deprived him of otherwise legitimised benefits, the petition said.

Both petitions requested the court to set aside the orders that recalled their services after retirement and restore the post service benefits to them.

The LHC bench heard the petitions and after preliminary hearing issued notices to the defence ministry.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2018