ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Rawalpindi bench on Thursday dismissed a petition of sacked major general Manzoor Ahmed seeking his reinstatement.

Justice Asim Hafeez of the LHC, while citing Article 199 (3) of the Constitution, dismissed the petition.

Article 199 (3) states: “An order shall not be made… in relation to a person who is a member of the Armed Forces of Pakistan… in respect of his terms and conditions of service.”

The sacked major general had challenged his dismissal in the LHC.

According to petitioner, he was sacked for not accepting ‘forced’ retirement

Earlier, he had filed a similar petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC), but Chief Justice Athar Minallah disposed of the petition, saying that the matter pertained to the LHC’s Rawalpindi bench since the respondent authorities were stationed in the garrison city.

Manzoor Ahmed was dismissed from service on March 9, 2021.

Advocate Abid Saqi represented him in the LHC.

According to the petition, the former major general was initially offered premature retirement but was dismissed from service after he filed a representation before the federal government against ‘forced’ retirement. In the representation he “highlighted the major shortcoming in the promotional system starting from the rank of major general to lieutenant general such as lack of demographic diversity and its effect on the institution”.

However, the petition said, “instead of giving due consideration to the petitioner’s proposals and according him priority for honorary regular promotion to the next rank, as the petitioner had six months experience of performing duties on a slot tenable by a three-star general, it infuriated the officers at the helm of affairs to such an extent that they orchestrated an unlawful dismissal of the petitioner from service”.

The petitioner nominated the defence secretary, adjutant general, military secretary and inspector general of arms as respondents.

The petition said that Mr Ahmed was commissioned in Pakistan Army in 1985 and rose to the rank of major general (BS-21). During the entire tenure of his service, not an iota of adverse record surfaced at any level against him. He also served as acting inspector general of arms which is a post of lieutenant general. He received retirement order on June 29, 2020 from the military secretary stating that the federal government had approved his retirement while indicating it a “normal retirement on completion of service limit”.

However, after Mr Ahmed challenged the retirement order and filed a representation before the president, his retirement order was recalled and the authorities dismissed him from service.

The petition said: “The dismissal order of March 9, 2021 is preposterous and unreasonable since the authorities have to establish the commission of some offence of grave nature, disciplinary breach, disclosure of official secrets… Moreover, the inquiry proceedings were never held nor any official order from the same was passed which is sufficient to establish that departmental authorities transgressed their limits.”

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2021