ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Co­­u­rt on Thursday overturned its Nov 8, 2018 determination of holding illegal the appointment of playwright and columnist Ataul Haq Qasmi as director/chairman of state-run Pak­istan Television (PTV).

Mr Qasmi was appointed director/chairman of PTV on Dec 23, 2015, and served in the position until Dec 18, 2017, on a salary package of Rs1.5 million.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, took up a set of review petitions moved by Mr Qasmi, former minister for information and broadcasting Pervez Rashid, former finance minister Ishaq Dar, and then secretary to ex-prime minister Fawad Hasan Fawad.

The court said no evidence was made out to support the contention that the organisation suffered a staggering Rs197.8m loss due to such appointment.

Cites lack of evidence for claim exchequer ‘lost’ Rs198m; removes ban on ex-director’s ‘future appointments’

Former CJP Saqib Nisar had initiated a suo motu and concluded that the former cabinet memebers were guilty of the illegal appointment and directed that the hefty amount of Rs197.8m be recovered from all of them.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court held that a review case had been made out, and thus, no amount was liable to be repaid by Mr Qasmi and the other petitioners. The order also explained that the direction given in the judgement that Mr Qasmi was not entitled to any such future appointment was unjustified.

The 2018 judgement had held that the payment of salary and other benefits or allowances to Mr Qasmi was unlawful and unauthorized, besides, due to a lack of fiduciary behaviour, Mr Qasmi will also be ineligible to be appointed as director of any company from the date of this judgement onwards.

CJP Isa noted that the appointment of Mr Qasmi came to the attention of the then CJP Nisar while hearing another case concerning PTV on Jan 29, 2018, when an exception was taken to the fact that PTV was functioning without any managing director for a year.

The court noted that the judgement had mentioned that Mr Qasmi received a sum exceeding Rs270m over a period of two years.

On Feb 26, 2018, the then CJP had appointed auditor Ernst & Young to conduct a thorough audit regarding Mr Qasmi’s appointment. It was the case of the petitioners that the entire judgement was premised on the basis of the audit report.

Senior counsel Muhammad Akram Sheikh, representing Mr Qasmi, raised a number of legal objections, highlighting that the matter taken up by the court earlier did not fall under the purview of Article 184(3) of the Constitution since it did not satisfy the requirement of public importance.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2024