PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday directed the provincial caretaker government to file a response to the petitions challenging the recent transfers and postings of senior bureaucrats in the province.

A bench consisting of Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan and Justice Ijaz Anwar issued the order during the hearing into two petitions filed by two Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders, including former provincial minister Shaukat Yousafzai and Malik Adnan, who requested the court to declare those reshuffle notifications illegal.

It directed the high court’s relevant office to club the two petitions with the identical ones and fix them for hearing on March 7.

The caretaker government had issued two notifications on Feb 16 and Feb 23 transferring several administrative officers in the province.

PHC orders to club identical pleas for hearing

Advocate Shumail Ahmad Butt appeared for the petitioners and said those transfers were meant to influence the forthcoming provincial assembly elections.

He said initially, the government made transfers with the approval of the Election Commission of Pakistan but within a few days, some of them were reversed at the behest of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader Akram Khan Durrani.

The lawyer said one of the petitioners, Malik Adnan, belonged to Bannu district and was a political rival of Mr Durrani, so he would challenge him in the election.

He said officer Tashfeen Haider was first transferred and posted as the deputy commissioner of Bannu but he was replaced with another officer, Manzoor Afridi, in the next few days. The lawyer said the ECP had banned transfers and postings in the province, so the caretaker government overstepped its powers by carrying out the bureaucratic reshuffle.

STAY EXTENDED: A bench consisting of Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim extended a stay order, which temporarily reinstated local bodies across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by suspending the Feb 3 notification of the Election Commission of Pakistan to stop tehsil, village and neighbourhood councils from functioning until the holding of the provincial assembly elections.

The bench fixed March 8 for next hearing into the petitions, which challenged the ECP’s move to stop all local government ‘functionaries’ from exercising powers and functions until the PA elections were held.

The petitioners, including Mardan city mayor Himayatullah Mayar and chairman of the Nowshera tehsil council Ishaq Khattak, had moved the court seeking a stay order against the suspension of local bodies.

During the hearing, the bench wondered that if fair polls can’t be held in presence of the local councils’ representatives then how come the same be held in presence of the governor, chief secretary and IGP, who were representatives of the federal government.

Justice Roohul Amin wondered whether the ECP was also going to suspend those state functionaries.

The bench also observed whether the ECP would suspend the National Assembly as it was intact and MNAs had been utilising development funds.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2023