PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has extended a stay order, which restrained the provincial government from filling the post of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil and Gas Company Limited’s chief executive officer.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Syed Arshad Ali directed the government and the OGCL to file their respective replies to the petition of a candidate for that post, Dr Ammer Khan Jadoon, who challenged the withdrawal of his appointment after he accepted the government’s offer.

It fixed April 11 for the next hearing declaring that the post won’t be filled until then.

Last month, the high court had granted an interim relief to the petitioner by issuing a stay order against the filling of the vacancy and sought the response of the government and the OGCL on the matter.

However, the failure of the respondents to file a response led to the extension of the stay order until further orders.

Seeks govt reply to petition against withdrawal of appointment

The petitioner’s counsel, Nouman Muhib Kakakhel, argued that appointment of his client to the CEO’s post was done through a proper channel as the post was advertised and he applied for it and was interviewed before his appointment from among three candidates was approved by the former provincial cabinet.

He added that the decision was put forward to the company for compliance and even he was offered an appointment, which he accepted but that offer was withdrawn and revoked after a week.

The counsel argued that once an appointment offer was accepted, it couldn’t be withdrawn.

He said that the basis of withdrawal and revocation was vague as the company had contacted a “wrong person” in his client’s previous company who only provided his service tenure and the last position held, and did not comment on any of the posts held by the petitioner.

The counsel argued that the petitioner was condemned unheard and was not given an opportunity to clarify the issue.

He said though the company didn’t issue a show cause notice, the petitioner clarified the issue and provided the required documents for a second time.

CONVICTION UPHELD: A bench consisting of Justice Syed M Attique Shah and Justice Shakeel Ahmad upheld the conviction and life sentence awarded to a man for killing two brothers in Swabi district in 2018.

It ruled that the prosecution had proved its case against the appellant (convict) Waqar, while the evidence available on record connected him with the commission of offence.

A court in Swabi district had convicted him and sentenced him to life on two counts besides imposing a fine of Rs1.6 million.

Advocate Altaf Khan appeared for complainant Shehnaz Begum, who is the sister of the deceased, Imtiaz Hussain and Sajjad Hussain.

He said the appellant along with his absconding brother had killed the deceased in the jurisdiction of the Swabi Industrial Estate police station.

The lawyer contended that the complainant was a witness to the killings and there was no chance of mis-identification of the appellant by her as they were co-villagers and were having previous blood feud.

He added that the FIR was lodged by the complainant within 40 minutes of the crime.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2023