KARACHI, Dec 21: The Federal Service Tribunal reinstated on Saturday a divisional transportation officer (DTO) of the Pakistan Railways with retrospective effect.

Upholding the submissions of ex-DTO Sardar Ahmed Shaikh’s counsel, Manzoorul Haq Solangi, a two-member FST bench found that the proceedings leading to his compulsory retirement from service were marred by serious legal and procedural infirmities. It directed the railways to initiate fresh disciplinary proceedings against the petitioner in accordance with the law and rules within four months. Payment of past remunerations and retention in service would depend on the findings of the new inquiry, it held.

The tribunal observed in its judgment that no detailed departmental inquiry was conducted to determine the factual position, particularly when the officer had denied all the charges levelled against him in the statement of charges enclosed with the showcause notice.

No proper personal hearing was afforded to him. A charge he was absolved of after a thorough investigation in November 2000 was reiterated in the show- cause notice issued to him in March 2001. Repetition of a disproved charge smacked of mala fides as argued by Advocate Solangi, FST members Mohammad Iqbal Khan and Mohammad Zubair Kidwai said in their detailed judgment.

They also pointed out that no tangible and substantial reasons were recorded by the railways department for dispensing with the inquiry proceedings envisaged by section 5 (4) of the Removal from Service (Special Powers) Ordinance, 2000. The omission meant that no sufficient documentary evidence was available against the officer. The order inflicting the major penalty of compulsory retirement was not an exhaustive and speaking order, which breached the right of the officer, they observed.