ISLAMABAD, May 31: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday issued show cause notice to the secretary housing and works for withdrawing the suspension order of a female executive engineer, facing charges of corruption.

Humaira Khurram, a Pakistan Public Works Department (PWD) officer, was accused of misappropriating Rs20 million and had been under suspension since March this year.

Besides, she, despite being most junior officer, has been holding the charge of five key stations at Faisalabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Sahiwal simultaneously since December 22, 2010 by the orders of then minister for housing Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat.

Humaira through her lawyer Ashraf Khan adopted before the IHC Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui on Friday that after getting promotion in 2010, she had been given the charge of the positions which were normally considered as prize assignment.

The lawyer told the court that her peers were not happy with her promotion therefore they started campaigning against her and managed to get her suspended during the caretaker setup.

The court on earlier hearing on April 30 declined her request for restoration in the service and also sought reply from the housing ministry and PWD officials.

On Friday deputy attorney general Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri informed the court that after rejection of her request for the restoration, Humera managed to get her reinstated.

He said Humaira was the most junior but she was assigned five key positions simultaneously.

He claimed that the petitioner faced Rs20 million corruption charges in the development schemes of Sheikhupura.

The department initiated an inquiry against her but she did not provide the inquiry officer access to the relevant record, he added.

According to him, Humera was dismissed from service in 2002 because of corruption charges but was reinstated by the Federal Services Tribunal (FST) on October 17, 2006.

Justice Siddiqui after hearing the arguments expressed annoyance over the attitude of the authorities concerned.

He asked the housing ministry to explain that why it had made a mockery of the court order and instead of waiting court ruling on the petition of the officer it withdrew her suspension letter.

He remarked that it appeared that the authorities were exercising their powers to blackmail the officers by suspending them or initiating actions against them.

Subsequently, he directed the secretary housing, Nasir Hayat, to appear bedore the court on June 4 and adjourned the proceedings.