ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will resume from Sept 23 the hearing of a suo motu case against illegal appointments and out-of-turn promotions of former military officers in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

A three-judge Supreme Court bench consisting of Justice Amir Hani Muslim, Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Ijazul Hassan will take up the case initiated by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali on an anonymous letter.

The letter had drawn the Supreme Court’s attention towards the appointment of 16 former military officers on deputation in senior grades from BPS-20 to BPS-21 out of the total 32 officers working in similar grades.

Later, eight senior officers of NAB moved a joint application in the Supreme Court to become a party in the case with a plea that the out-of-turn promotions of the former military officers were impeding their promotions to next grades.

NAB chairman Chaudhry Qamar Zaman and Attorney General Aushtar Ausaf are on notice with a direction by the Supreme Court to come up with answers to the allegations levelled in the letter.

In the anonymous letter, the author had alleged that NAB had not only violated the basic service structure and service laws but also grossly put the Supreme Court’s order in sheer disregard vis-a-vis appointments and promotions in the institution.

The letter explained that these 16 officers, a majority of them former military officers on deputation, were posted on OPS (own pay and scale) against higher grades, particularly director generals of different Regional NAB offices.

A majority of them were brought in NAB on deputation for period of three years — from 1999 to 2002 — but were later absorbed permanently.

They are: retired Col Siraj ul Naeem, retired Maj Shehzad Saleem, retired Brig Hadeed, retired Maj Tariq Mehmood Malik, retired Maj Syed Burhan, retired Maj Masood Ahmed Lodhi, retired Maj Shabeer Ahmed, Squadron Leader Karamat, Squadron Leader Irshadul Haq, retired Col Subah Sadiq, retired Col Shehzad Anwer Bhatti, retired Squadron Leader Tariq Nadeem Bhatti, retired Capt Farrukh, Amir Shah, Syed Muhammad Hussain, Abdul Hafeez Siddiqi, Muhammad Salim, Altaf Bawani and Nawazish Ali Asim.

Citing Section 28 of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO), 1999, and NAB’s Terms and Conditions of Service (TCS) Rules, 2002, the letter highlighted that rules had deliberately been designed in a way to serve the purpose of accommodating those individuals who otherwise were not qualified to be placed in positions they enjoyed currently.

In order to make any entity independent, it was the requirement of the law to make appointments procedure within dictates of the constitution as enshrined in Article 242 which necessitated appointments through the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), the letter said.

But in total disregard of the Constitution, the letter said, the NAB chairman had been made the sole authority to make appointments in any manner he desired so.

The eight directors of different regions namely Mirza Sultan M. Saleem, Fayyaz A. Qureshi, Irfan Naeem Mangi, Abdul Hafeez Khan, Mirza Irfan Baig, Toheed ul Hassan, Farmanullah and Mujahid Akbar Bloch, all serving in BS-20 and posted in different

stations, have sought a court order against NAB for the implementation of the 2013 Supreme Court judgement in which the bureau had been ordered to streamline its service structure of civil servants in line with principles laid down in the verdict.

The petition recalled that during 2003, former army officers, including the six officers named in the petition, had been inducted in NAB as appointments by transfer under clause 13.03 read with clause 3.30 of NAB Employee’s Terms and Conditions of Services (TCS) Rules, 2002.

The petition further argued that NAB was trying to downgrade and customise the prescribed academic qualification and experience for the post of director general only to accommodate and justify the appointment of the retired military officers.

Published in Dawn September 13th, 2016