ISLAMABAD: Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench on Wednesday reversed the transfers of secretaries of over 400 union councils (UCs) across Punjab and sought a reply from the Local Government Department.

LHC Justice Shahid Jamil was hearing the petition filed by 44 secretaries of the UCs located in the districts Attock and Jehlum.

The caretaker government of Punjab had transferred over 400 secretaries of the UCs across Punjab from their native districts to other divisions.

Some of the aggrieved officials challenged the notification before the LHC.

Advocate Kashif Ali Malik, counsel for the petitioners, argued before the court that the transfer orders of the low paid officials of the local government are contradictory to the Articles 4, 9, 10A, 18 and 25 of the 1973Constitution and would adversely affect the prospects of service of the petitioners and thus liable to be set aside.

He argued that it was a well-settled law that where rules or any other legal instrument confer a particular power, the authority can exercise that power by applying its own independent mind. However, in this particular case the impugned notifications of posting of the petitioners were passed without due consideration and in a mechanical manner.

According to the counsel, the transfer/posting orders were also violative of the departmental instructions, as conveyed vide Local Government and Community Development Department, Government of Punjab, which require the authority to fulfill the given conditions before transferring an employee from one local government to another either within a district or a division on his own request.

The petition termed the transfer notifications as “a selective and arbitrary” exercise.

There are cases in the impugned notifications wherein either the sole secretary of a UC or for that matter even both secretaries in cases where there are more than one, have been transferred thus rendering the office of secretary for those union councils vacant.

The petition requested the court to set aside the transfer orders.

After hearing the preliminary arguments, the court suspended transfers of all the secretaries of the UCs and sought a report from the officials concerned of the local government department.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2023