ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday won a legal battle against former caretaker interior minister retired Maj Mohammad Habib Khan over a promotion dispute regarding the latter’s police service.

An Islamabad High Court division bench comprising justices Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and Athar Minallah issued a verdict stating that Mr Khan, who served in the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP), was not entitled to a promotion to BPS-22.

Mr Khan was appointed the caretaker interior minister before the May 2013 general elections. He also served as the inspector general of police (IGP) until 2005.

IHC division bench rules former minister not entitled to promotion to BPS-22

During his service, Mr Khan was allegedly deprived of a promotion to BPS-22 in 2002. On Nov 13, 2012, the then IHC chief justice ordered his promotion to BPS-22 with all the backdated benefits.

However, the Establishment Division, in December 2012 challenged the court order. The IHC division bench accepted the appeal on Wednesday.

Deputy Attorney General Raja Khalid Mehmood informed the court that the matter related to Mr Khan’s post-retirement promotion had been referred to the relevant federal government committee.

In its order, the IHC division bench held that seeking promotion is not the vested right of a civil servant, but is at the discretion of the appointing authority. The appointing authority can promote a civil servant subject to the fulfillment of the required criteria, the order added, and the court may intervene if mala fide intention is proven during the process of promoting a civil servant.

According to details of the case, on Nov 13, 1998, the then PML-N government appointed Mr Khan as IGP Balochistan, a post from which he was removed by Gen Musharraf on Nov 27, 1999.

In 2002, Mr Khan filed a petition asking for his seniority and backdated benefits. In the petition, he adopted that the “Central Selection Board (CSB) in its meeting on Aug 9, 2002, recommended the name of the petitioner for promotion from BPS-20 to BPS-21”.

The petition said CSB reconvened its meeting on Sept 6, 2002, and dropped his name from the list ‘under pressure’. However, he was promoted to BPS-21 on Aug 5, 2003, while the matter was in the Lahore High Court, but without backdated benefits. Because of this, he lost his seniority.

Mr Khan then filed a departmental appeal on Aug 27, 2003 seeking his seniority, which was not entertained. He retired from service on Feb 15, 2005, and approached the Federal Service Tribunal (FST) in 2006 from promotion to BPS-22.

He adopted before the court that, due to the one year delay in his promotion to BPS-21, his name was not considered for promotion to BPS-22. FST accepted his petition and ordered the federal government to give him backdated benefits, but the order was not implemented and in 2012, he filed a petition with IHC. IHC in turn ordered his promotion to BS-22.

According to Mr Mehmood, Mr Khan was not entitled to the promotion to BPS-22, because nobody one step his senior, nor one step his junior, had been promoted to BPS-22 until his retirement.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2016