KARACHI, Sept 26: The Federal Service Tribunal declared on Friday that no major penalty under the efficiency and discipline rules could be awarded without a regular inquiry affording the accused employee full opportunity to defend himself.

Reinstating an officer of the Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (Passco), Shafi Muhammad Brohi, tribunal members Akbar M. Memon and Barkat Ali Baloch held that a fact- finding inquiry was no substitute for a regular inquiry stipulated by the rules.

On the factual plane, the tribunal agreed with the appellant’s counsel, Mohammad Nawaz Shaikh, that Mr Brohi was not personally responsible for the loss of 208 tonnes of wheat kept in the open at Passco’s Bhaguwala (Lodhran) depot after procurement in 1998.

The depot had no proper facility of storage and the stocks were admittedly vulnerable to pest attack, humidity and rains. The depot staff had, on numerous occasions, requested transfer of the stocks to the Lodhran godowns or some other safer place but the corporation high-ups paid no heed.

The tribunal also noted that the preliminary probe held by Passco, on the basis of which the appellant and three other officials were dismissed, recommended reversion to lower posts. But the corporation hastily decided to dispense with the services of accused employees without holding a regular inquiry required by the rules.