PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Tuesday suspended the recent transfer order of the secretary of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Peshawar and sought response of the government to his plea against the said order.

A bench consisting of Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar and Justice Kamran Hayat Miankhel fixed Dec 10 for next hearing of the petition. The petition has been filed by the secretary, Mehdi Jan Khan, who has requested the court to declare as illegal and set aside the impugned notification issued on Nov 24.

The bench directed the board’s controlling authority (chief minister), chief secretary and secretary of elementary and secondary education department to submit their comments in the petition within a fortnight.

Through the impugned notification, the petitioner has been transferred from the post of the BISE secretary and ordered to report to the board chairman.

Petitioner claims he was condemned unheard

The petitioner’s counsel Khaled Rahman argued that respondents had not treated his client in accordance with law, rules on the subject and acted in violation of Article 4 of the Constitution of Pakistan and unlawfully issued the impugned notification, which was unjust, unfair and hence not sustainable in the eyes of law.

He stated that the petitioner was permanent officer of the board and was earlier serving as deputy secretary in BPS-18. He said that he was regularly promoted to the post of secretary in BPS-19 by the controlling authority in accordance with the board calendar. He said that his client successfully discharged his responsibility, thereafter, the impugned notification was highly arbitrary, result of abusive exercise of power and hence not sustainable.

He argued that the petitioner was condemned unheard as he was neither issued a show-cause notice nor was he provided with opportunity of hearing before issuing the notification, which was against the principle of natural justice.

The counsel stated that his client had joined the service of BISE Peshawar as assistant secretary in BPS-17 in 2008 and was later on promoted to the post of deputy secretary in BPS-18 in 2016.

He said that on repatriation of the then secretary, the petitioner was authorised to hold additional charge of the post of secretary through an office order on Sep 21, 2021.

He said that since the petitioner was a permanent officer of BISE Peshawar and under the board calendar was entitled to promotion, therefore, he filed an application on Jan 6, 2023, to the BISE chairman for his promotion, which was processed for necessary action.

However, he stated that the petitioner was informed to approach the competent authority following which he applied to the controlling authority for his promotion.

The counsel said that after the requisite approval, the petitioner was promoted to the post of secretary through a notification on Jan 17, 2024, on regular basis for initial probation period of one year and subsequently after completion of that period he was confirmed on Jan 23, 2025.

He claimed that the petitioner was an active member of the reforms team of the board, which introduced machine readable-based marking, online enrolment and registration, online admissions, online re-totalling, online roll number slips, migration, computerisation of certificates and provision of online services for issuance of DMCs etc.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2025