ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has decided to form a special committee to determine the fate of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officers whose appointments or promotions were acknowledged by the government as being “inconsistent”.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim appointed the four-man committee comprising Establishment Division Secretary Syed Tahir Shahbaz, NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, NAB Director General (Human Resources) Mohammad Shakeel and a member of the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), to be nominated by its chairman.

The bench had taken suo motu notice of the alleged illegal appointments and out-of-turn promotions in NAB.

The matter was initiated by former chief justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali on an anonymous letter drawing the court’s attention to the appointment on deputation of 16 former military officers — to posts in grades 21 and 22 — out of the total 32 officers working in similar grades.

Apex court allows five officers premature retirement; three ex-military personnel to be denotified

During the hearing, Justice Qazi Faez Isa observed that NAB should not have a soft face, rather a face of steel, so that everyone feared it.

Justice Muslim observed that the court did not want to disturb the bureau’s entire system, but at the same time it could not allow appointments to be made in an irregular manner.

“We have avoided stigmatising individuals, rather attempting to accommodate everybody within the legal framework,” Justice Muslim observed, adding that these officers were free to rejoin their services in NAB through the FPSC.

As a first step, the Supreme Court ordered the NAB chairman to immediately denotify three of the nine DGs who had come from the military and declined the court’s offer of availing premature retirement. They include NAB Lahore DG Maj Bhurhan Ali, NAB Balochistan DG Maj Tariq Mehmood and NAB Karachi Additional DG Maj Shabbir Ahmed.

In its short order, the apex court said these officers would be entitled to all pension benefits. But when advertisements to fill these vacancies are issued, these officers will be eligible to apply and will be considered for the posts on merit. The vacancies would be created and filled in three months, whereas the FPSC would take steps to issue advertisements for the posts, the court said.

However, the bench conceded that while NAB rules exempted it from the FPSC, this discretion was not in conformity with articles 240 to 242 of the Constitution, which called for appointments to federal government services through competitive examinations.

“The involvement of the FPSC will be helpful and encourage transparency,” observed Justice Muslim.

The court also approved an agreement reached between the establishment secretary, the NAB chairman and NAB counsel Khawaja Mohammad Haris, saying that the remaining five officers who had sought premature retirement were not eligible for reappointment against the posts they were currently holding.

Of them, the court allowed Adnan Shahzad Asghar to be repatriated to his parent department — the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP). To avoid hardship, the NAB chairman has been directed to relieve the officer immediately, whereas the NBP will consider that he was never repatriated from the bank, entitling him to every benefit his batchmates have availed.

The remaining four — Moham­mad Fahad Khan, Yasir Meh­mood, Kareem Bux and Haroon Bhatti — will have to provide equivalence certificates for their educational qualification from the Higher Education Com­mission within four weeks. In case they fail to do so, their services will be terminated.

Referring to 95 officers who were pointed out by the establishment secretary for lacking the requisite experience in their initial appointments, the court asked the special committee to record its findings about these officers within two months.

Similarly, regarding the 137 inconsistencies in appointments and promotions, the NAB chairman said 35 of them had already retired while the rest would be issued show cause notices and asked to appear before the committee.

Their cases will be heard while the committee will decide about their fate in two months.

Referring to NAB DG (Awareness and Prevention) Aliya Rashid, a tennis star who was appointed in the bureau on the recommendation of the then prime minister in recognition of her meritorious services, the NAB chairman assured the court that the bureau would work out some way to hire her services as a consultant on a contract basis, since she was a valuable asset for the organisation.

Justice Muslim also asked NAB to count her eight-year service in the bureau for pension benefits and cited a 2016 SC judgement, which allowed the commutation of service on a contract basis.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2017