PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday declared illegal the last year appointment of the Mardan Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education controller of examination on deputation.

The declaration was made in a short order on the petition of Mardan BISE assistant controller Rashid Gul against assistant professor Shaukat Hayat’s appointment to the said post in September last year.

The bench consisted of Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth.

The petitioner said he and colleagues were denied the right of promotion after the chief minister appointed an outsider the controller of examination at the board.

Mohammad Essa Khan and Akhtar Ilyas, lawyers for the petitioner, said their client had long been serving as assistant controller of examination in BPS-17 at the Mardan BISE.

Outsider made controller on deputation last year

They said last year, the provincial elementary and secondary education department invited applications for appointment as the controller of examination and their client applied for the post.

The lawyers, however, said instead of appointing any officer from within the board, the controlling authority i.e. provincial chief minister ordered the appointment of assistant professor Shaukat Hayat to the said post on deputation for three years.

Essa Khan said earlier, his client filed a petition against the appointment of another person as the controller on deputation but the authority withdrew the order of that appointment in the meantime.

He referred to several judgments of the superior courts saying when suitable officers were available at the Mardan BISE, no officer could be brought from outside on deputation to fill a post.

The lawyer added that if the practice of appointing outsiders to the key posts of the Mardan BISE continued, then the board’s officers could never be appointed to those posts.

The respondents in the petition were the controlling authority (chief minister), the BISE chairman and the elementary and secondary education secretary.

The counsel for the government and BISE said the appointment of controller of examination was for a period of three years and that it was not possible that the petitioner was first appointed against the said post for three years and then reverted to his position on completion of that term.

PETITION DISPOSED OF: The bench also disposed of a petition against the denial of promotion to Peshawar Electric Supply Company Limited linemen.

The development came after a Pesco official informed the bench that a policy had been formulated for the purpose.

The petition was filed by Sanaullah Khan and 24 other linemen, who insisted they’re denied due promotion as there’s no policy for the purpose.

The lawyer for petitioners, Ameenur Rehman, said his clients were appointed against the quota of the employees’ children and that under the existing policy, they would retire in the same scale in which they were appointed.

He requested the bench to issue directives for the promotion of his clients for appointment to the relevant posts, including that of line superintendent.

Pesco assistant director (human resource) Sher Afgan informed the bench that since no posts were available in the next grade, the petitioners couldn’t be promoted.

He said Pesco had formulated a policy to promote linemen and that as soon as the relevant posts would be available, they would be promoted to fill them.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2015

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