PESHAWAR: A single-member bench of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Service Tribunal has admitted to regular hearing an appeal by senior additional secretary of the provincial assembly Kifayatullah Khan Afridi against the appointment of the current secretary over the alleged violation of its orders and seniority issue.

Tribunal chairman Ahmad Sultan Tareen also stopped the respondents, including the provincial’s speaker, from acting against the appellant until the final disposal of the plea.

The appellant requested the tribunal to set aside the Jan 10 recommendation of the departmental promotion committee for the promotion of current secretary Nasrullah Khan and the Jan 11 notification by the speaker for his appointment to the current office.

The respondents in the petition are the speaker of the provincial assembly, the DPC through its secretary, and assembly secretary Nasrullah Khan.

Stops speaker from acting against appellant until disposal of case

After preliminary hearing, the tribunal issued notices to the respondents directing them to submit response to the appeal in 10 days.

It declared that if the replies were not produced within the stipulated time, the office should submit the file with a report of non-compliance.

The bench also decided to club the appeal with an earlier execution petition filed by the appellant for the implementation of its earlier order, and fixed the hearing for June 11.

Ali Azim Afridi, lawyer for the appellant, contended that there were several rounds of litigation on the matter.

He said in Dec last year, the tribunal had declared illegal the promotion of additional secretary Nasrullah Khan as the secretary and set aside the relevant notification.

The lawyer said the tribunal had then accepted appeal of the present appellant, who had stated that that contrary to an earlier judgment of the tribunal the DPC had in 2019 recommended promotion of Nasrullah Khan from the post of the additional secretary.

He said the tribunal had set aside the Sept 2, 2019, decision of the DPC and the Sept 3, 2019, notification by the KP Assembly’s Speaker for the promotion of the respondent (Nasrullah) as the assembly’s secretary.

The lawyer said the tribunal had directed the relevant officials to form the DPC in accordance with the law to consider the matter in light of the decision on a previous appeal and the judgment and in line with the law and rules.

He added that the tribunal had declared the appellant senior most among the additional secretaries (BPS-20), but that factor was ignored by the DPC.

The lawyer said in an earlier judgment, the tribunal had observed that seniority-cum-fitness was the sole criteria or principle for promotion to the post of the assembly’s secretary (BPS-21).

He added that the Jan 11, 2021, notification of the promotion of Nasrullah was totally uncalled-for and against the law governing the matter.

The lawyer contended that his client, who had served in the Assembly’s Secretariat for more than 25 years with ‘impeccable service record’, was entitled to promotion but that aspect was totally ignored by the competent authority just to benefit the respondent.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2021