MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 20: The AJK High Court on Thursday directed the government to frame appointment terms and conditions and service rules for the Kashmir Liberation Cell and present the incumbent staff before the Public Service Commission or a selection board for the evaluation of their merit.

The judgment was passed by Chief Justice Syed Manzoor Hussain Gillani on a petition filed by 29 employees of the cell through budget officer Manzoor Ahmed Ghayoor.

The petitioners fearing “arbitrary exercise of authority” by the officials due to the absence of rules regulating their service had sought a direction from the court to the government in this regard.

The advocates representing the government contended that appointments were made according to the rules applicable to other civil servants under notifications issued from time to time.

They maintained that the petitioners had filed the petition with mala fide intention to perpetuate their ad hoc appointments.

The CJ observed that successive governments had failed to frame service rules in spite of objections, proposals and reminders by the accountant-general, the finance department and others.

However, since the persons appointed were performing functions as assigned to them by the chairman, chaos would be created and the entire machinery would collapse if all the appointments were forthwith declared as without lawful authority, he said. The Azad Kashmir prime minister is the chairman of the cell.

The CJ said the persons appointed after the passage of the Finance Act, 1991, should be deemed to have been appointed on ad hoc basis for six months from now and necessary rules should be framed within the period.

The case of each incumbent should be placed before the Public Service Commission or an appropriate selection board for evaluating his merit against the post and only those should be retained who fulfilled the requirements of the rules, the CJ held.

He ordered that no appointment be made in the cell till the promulgation of the service rules.