ISLAMABAD: The Federal Services Tribunal has declared the appointment of the incumbent Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) director general to be irregular, and has directed the concerned ministry to appoint a new head within three months.

The tribunal maintained that the appointment of the Pak-EPA director general was a violation on several grounds. In a judgement issued on June 5, the tribunal said the rules required the Pak-EPA director general to have a Punjab domicile, while the incumbent head was hired from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The tribunal said the fact that the director general was hired from another province “amounts to travesty of justice”.

The tribunal said the rules also required the director general to be from amongst the senior-most officials in the agency and direct induction through the Federal Public Services Commission (FPSC) was not allowed.

The matter was highlighted after Pak-EPA Labs Director Ziauddin Khattak challenged the director general’s appointment from KP.

Pak-EPA is a department of the Ministry of Climate Change. Its current director general, Farzana Altaf Shah, was appointment through the FPSC in October 2016.

However, Climate Change Secretary Syed Abu Ahmed Akif shrugged off the tribunal’s order, saying it was nothing serious.

“The incumbent director general was hired through due process by the FPSC, which is one of the highest government bodies in the country. The director general is going nowhere,” he said.

The tribunal also asked how Ms Altaf got her Abbottabad, KP domicile cancelled and got another from Attock, Punjab. “She is liable to be criminally prosecuted for keeping fake domicile,” the tribunal said.

Mr Akif, however, said: “Had this point been that crucial, we at the ministry would be running around all over the place to initiate legal action.”

Ms Shah said she got her KP domicile cancelled and another made after she got married and settled in Punjab.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2017