PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday stopped the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government from acting against the chief executive officer of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Zones Development and Management Company until further orders.

A bench consisting of Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim issued notices to the respondents, including the chief secretary and industries minister and secretary, seeking their response to a petition filed by EZDMC CEO Javed Iqbal Khattak, who has challenged a summary moved for approval of the provincial cabinet to ‘review and suspend’ the petitioner’s re-appointment last year.

The bench fixed Mar 28 for next hearing with the direction that till then no adverse action should be taken against the petitioner on the basis of the impugned summary.

The petitioner requested the court to declare as illegal the act of the caretaker industries minister (respondent No 2) to place an agenda item in the caretaker cabinet meeting to “review and suspend” the re-appointment of the EZDMC CEO.

Khattak challenged summary against his re-appointment

The petitioner requested to restrain from taking any steps against the CEO as he had once been reappointed through a proper channel last year for a period of three years with effect from March 18, 2023, to March 19, 2026.

Former advocate general Shumail Ahmad Butt appeared for the petitioner and said initially, the petitioner was appointed the CEO and the decision was approved by the provincial cabinet and a notification in this regard was issued by the industries department on March 18, 2020.

He contended that keeping in view his outstanding performance the BoD in its meeting held on Aug 17, 2022, recommended for the extension of the term of the CEO for further three years with effect from March 20, 2023 to March 19, 2026.

He added that the then provincial cabinet on Dec 13, 2022 approved the proposed summary for the extension and thus re-appointed the petitioner as CEO for a period of three years.

When the bench inquired what was the urgency of his reappointment in Aug 2022 when his term had to expire in March 2023, the counsel said the decision was made in accordance with the relevant guidelines of the SECP.

He said the caretaker industries minister was earlier appointed as a private member in the EZDMC board in 2017 but due to his and other board members unsatisfactory performance they were not reappointed and a new BoD was constituted. Due to the same reason, he added, he had been having personal grudges against the BoD members and the employees of the EZDMC.

He contended that now when the said respondent was appointed as caretaker minister, he in sheer violation of Section 230 of the Elections Act, 2017, had a few days ago initiated a summary through the secretary industries wherein it had been reflected that he not only desired to dissolve the present BoD of the EZDMC but also boards of other entities.

Mr Butt argued that under the Constitution, the caretaker setup was appointed to hold free and fair elections in aid of the Election Commission of Pakistan.

He argued that no caretaker cabinet could make policy decisions even in relation to transfers and postings of civil servants and that it couldn’t remove private and independent members of the BoD of a public sector company such as EZDMC.

Referring to different judgements of superior courts, he contended that the mandate of the caretaker setup was very limited but despite that the caretaker minister had been illegally and unauthorised interfering in the affairs of the EZDMC and had illegally included the impugned proposal for “review and suspension of the re-appointment of the EZDMC CEO.”

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2023