ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Director General Shoaib Khoso challenged the termination of his contract in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday.

Mr Khoso’s three-year contract was terminated a day earlier amid a row between the PSB and its administrative Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC).

He challenged the notification issued for his termination through his counsel Mohammad Shoaib Shaheen. The petition has been fixed before IHC Justice Babar Sattar.

Justice Sattar was already hearing a petition against the appointment of Mr Khoso as the PSB chief.

The ministry terminated his contract on Friday and the Establishment Division issued a notification.

The Establishment Division also assigned the additional charge to Zahoor Ahmed, a BS-21 officer of Secretariat Group, presently working as additional secretary in the IPC ministry for three months.

Earlier this week, the PSB had challenged the authority of the secretary IPC and termed posting, assigning look-after charge in the board by the ministry as contradictory to the Establishment Division’s rules.

In a letter sent to the secretary IPC on April 15, PSB’s Deputy Director General (Admin) Mansoor Ahmed Khan stated that while the DG PSB was on ex-Pakistan leave, the ministry assigned the charge to a junior officer of BS-19.

The letter termed this against the Management Pay Scale Policy approved by the prime minister that provided that “the current charge/additional charge of the position of heads of autonomous bodies in MP-scales only be granted to a civil or government servants of equivalent grad and that too with the approval of the appointing authority which is the prime minister.”

Sarfraz Rasool, an assistant engineer of the PSB, on April 17 challenged the postings/ transfers made in the board by the acting DG and the Islamabad

High Court (IHC) issued a stay order.

Interestingly, the appointment of the PSB head made in the PDM government was also sub judice in the IHC; however, the IPC ministry terminated his contract “by paying one month’s salary in lieu of one month notice with immediate effect.”

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2024