ISLAMABAD: The Sup­reme Court reaffirmed on Monday its earlier order requiring the Balochistan government not to appoint non-cadre officers to cadre posts.

At the same time, a two-judge bench, headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim, ordered the Balochistan High Court registrar to submit a list of all related cases and BHC Chief Justice Mir Muhammad Noor Meskan­zai not to entertain cases relating to deputation, out-of-turn promotions, absorption to other departments or appointment of non-cadre officers to cadre posts.

In its order, the Supreme Court recalled that it had issued principle guidelines through its judgements in 2013 and 2015 regarding officers on deputation, with a directive to immediately repatriate such officers to their parent departments.

It held that under Article 212 of the Constitution, the high court could not take up cases about which a policy guideline had been issued by the SC.

It ordered the provincial government to appoint on cadre posts only officers ap­pointed though the Pakis­tan and provincial civil service.

The bench had taken up a follow-up case on an inquiry commission report written by Justice Qazi Faez Isa on the Aug 8 suicide attack on Quetta’s Civil Hospital, which left at least 74 people dead, mostly lawyers.

The commission highlighted that when the explosion took place, the provincial health secretary had been appointed illegally. It said the chief secretary had testified that when the name of Dr Umar Baloch was proposed by the chief minister, he had opposed the appointment in writing since it was in violation of the rules because he did not belong to the Balochistan or Pakistan Civil Service. But the chief minister overruled the objection since the individual was a brother of a retired senior army officer and a federal minister.

The commission also regretted that although Dr Baloch was removed from the post on Nov 10 last year, three other non-cadre people continued to hold positions of secretaries in the Balochistan government.

The Supreme Court was informed on Feb 6 that Communications and Works Secretary Rehmatullah Zehri, Public Health Engineering Secretary Sheikh Nawaz Ahmed and Lasbela Industrial Authority Chairman Sohail Mirza were functioning on cadre posts despite belonging to non-cadre service.

When the provincial government sacked all of them through a Jan 15 notification, Mr Zehri got a stay order from the provincial services tribunal and Mr Nawaz and Mr Mirza from the BHC.

Advocate General for Balochistan Amanullah Kanrani cited over 20 cases where officers had got frozen through various judicial forums the orders for their removal or transfer to their parent departments by the provincial government in compliance with the recommendations of the Quetta commission.

The law officer said the commission had also highlighted the need for good governance.

Published in Dawn February 14th, 2017