PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday rejected the plea of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Workers Welfare Board’s secretary for vacation of a stay order against his functioning.

Justice Irshad Qaisar and Justice Roohul Ameen Khan gave the verdict on Naimatullah Gandapur’s application after hearing arguments of both the sides.

Earlier this month, the high court’s Bannu bench had issued a stay order to stop the WWB secretary from performing his all administrative work, including appointments, postings and transfers.

The order was issued during the hearing into a petition of former WWB employee Ikramullah Khan against the secretary’s appointment by the chief secretary.

The lawyers for the applicant said the bench had overlooked several points while issuing the restraining order against their client.

They claimed their client’s appointment to the board was in accordance with the law and that there was no need to secure the federal government’s approval for it.

The lawyers requested the court to vacate the stay order against their client to allow him to resume his administrative duties.

Pir Hamidullah Shah and Anwarul Haq, lawyers for petitioner Ikramullah, said their client had requested the court to ask the secretary under what authority he had been occupying the post.

They said WWB was formed in line with Section 11-A of the Workers Welfare Fund Ordinance 1971 under which, the secretary of the labour departm-ent was the board’s chairman.

The lawyers said under Section 11(D)(3) of the said ordinance, the secretary had been appointed.

They added that under the said section, the chairman could appoint the WWB secretary with the sanction of the board but after the approval of the Workers Welfare Fund’s governing body.

The lawyers said in the instant case, the chief secretary had illegally appointed the WWB secretary as he had no autho- rity to make the appointment.

The petitioner said when the WWB secretary was appointed, he held BPS-18, whereas the secretary’s post was of BPS-20.

He claimed that the secretary belonged to the engineering cadre, so he was not eligible to be appointed to an administrative post.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2015

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