02 March 2004	Tuesday	10 Muharram 1425

ISLAMABAD, March 1: Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, has been approached by a large number of officials of the apex court, seeking reversal of his first executive decision which has disturbed the seniority of 25 officials, including 11 assistant registrars of the court.

The Chief Justice appointed Ghulam Ghous as Deputy Registrar (Judicial) in grade-19 on January 3, 2004, three days after his own appointment as CJP. The superseded officials who filed representation with the Chief Justice have maintained that the appointment was violation of Supreme Court (Appointment of Officers and Servants & Terms and Conditions) Rules, 1982.

The aggrieved officials said the appointment has set a quite unpleasant precedent and would pave the way for further such orders, defeating the principle of justice in the highest court of the country.

They said that a person whose educational qualification is simple BA has been appointed against the important post of deputy registrar. The superseded officials pointed out that Ghulam Ghous was inducted in Federal Shariat Court in BS-1 (naib qasid) in December, 1982 after doing matric.

He was promoted as stenographer in the Federal Shariat Court and was brought in the Supreme Court as private secretary in BPS-17 in 1996 where he was appointed as private secretary to Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid, with whom he had worked in the FSC.

After working in SC as private secretary in grade-17 for four years, his services were placed at the disposal of Federal Tax Ombudsman Justice (retd) Saleem Akhtar. From FTO, he got himself appointed as administrator Jammu and Kashmir State Property in Pakistan in 2003 in grade-19.

The aggrieved officials said the appointment was not only against the rules but also against the judicial norms set out by the apex court itself in a number of cases.

The officials pointed out to the CJP that Ghulam Ghous, did not fulfil the requirement for appointment as deputy register, as spelt out in the Supreme Court Appointment Rules, 1982.

The officials contended that he was neither regular nor permanent employee in BPS-19 in any federal or provincial government. He is a permanent employee of SC in grade-17.

The officials said it was a condition precedent to the appointment of a person in BPS-19 that he must have 12 years service in BPS-16 and above. The officials raised serious doubts about his educational qualification.

Some of them stated that he had joined FSC after doing matric in 1982, from where onward he took every step in his service career with the help from outside. "He has never been appointed or promoted to any post as a result of open competition."

More than one officials said that when Ghulam Ghous was only four years old they had joined the government service, and now when they are at the verge of retirement, they have been superseded by a person who, in most of the cases, was about 20 years younger to them.

"His appointment is against all the norms of justice, ethics, morality, equity and above all the Quran and Sunnah of the Holy Prophet," they maintained.