LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday sought replies from the provincial chief secretary and other respondents on a petition by five PMS officers seeking a direction for the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) to revise the merit list to accommodate them against vacant slots of assistant commissioners.

The petitioners were selected by the commission after passing Provincial Management Service (BS-17) 2017 examination and had been performing duties in excise, taxation and narcotics control department and Punjab local fund audit department.

Petitioners’ counsel Humayon Faiz Rasool told the court that few of the petitioners’ colleagues from PMS-9 later qualified the CSS-2018 examination and were about to begin their Common Training Programme.

He said the petitioners requested the PPSC for issuance of a new merit list as it had already issued in view of merit, level playing field and equity. However, he said, the request was rejected by the commission.

The counsel pointed out that the PPSC recently revised the list in order to appoint respondent Danyal Safdar Langrial, who stood 43rd in the merit list and had many senior bureaucrats in his family, to fill a vacant post.

He asked the court to order the commission to revise the merit list after including the names of the petitioners.

Justice Shahid Karim heard the arguments and sought replies from the respondents by Nov 25. The petitioners include Nadia Parveen, Hakim Khan, Nadeem Arshad, Khizar Zahoor and Ehtishamul Haq.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2019