PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday rejected a writ petition filed by an ousted chief executive officer of TransPeshawar Company who had challenged his removal by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government last year.

A bench of Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim pronounced that the petition filed by Altaf Akber Durrani was not maintainable.

The bench pronounced a short order after completion of arguments by all the parties involved in the case, whereas detailed judgment will be released later.

The bench also recalled a stay order it had earlier issued through which the government was restrained from filling the vacant post of the chief executive officer (CEO). The TPC is responsible for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project design, procurement, implementation, BRT operation, etc and it has its own board of directors.

Short order pronounced while detailed judgment to be released later

The provincial cabinet had approved a summary for removal of the petitioner in April 2018, citing different reasons. It was alleged that the performance of the petitioner was poor and he was unable to meet the assigned timelines for the task, especially regarding the delivery of bus fleet.

Senior advocate Waseemuddin Khattak appeared for TPC and contended that it was a public limited company, which was registered under the Companies Act, 2017, and the provincial government was having major shares in it.

He said that under Section 190 (2) of the Companies Act, 2017, the government was empowered to remove chief executive of a company.

He contended that the present writ petition was not maintainable as the petitioner was appointed through a contract and he could not move high court under Article 199 of the Constitution. At the most, he added, the petitioner could move a civil court in case any of his contractual obligations was not met.

Mr Khattak said that after removal of the petitioner, the post of CEO was advertised but the court stayed the new appointment against the said post due to which the company functions were suffering. He added that the petitioner had gone abroad and had been working there, but recruitment against the post of CEO continued to be stayed.

The petitioner’s counsel contended that the decision of the chief minister was illegal as the petitioner was removed without assigning any genuine reason. He stated that the petitioner was appointed in 2017 for a period of three years and he could not be removed in such a manner.

He said that the board of directors of the company had also not approved the removal of the petitioner. The counsel said that the petitioner was removed from his post as he had pointed out flaws in the design of the BRT.

He contended that based on the requirements of the Asian Development Bank’s procurement procedures and the pace of the civil infrastructure work, the timeline for the buses procurement was unrealistic and unjustified.

He said that the petitioner had informed the Board of Directors of the high level cost impact of early procurement of the buses and other risks, which added up to approximately Rs2 billion per year.

Additional advocate general Sikander Shah argued that the petitioner was a dual national and had gone to Canada, where he was on job. The bench observed that the fact should have been considered by the government at the time of his appointment. Moreover, the bench observed that Dr Nausherwan Burki was an American national but he was still looking after the entire health structure in the country.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2019