LAHORE, Nov 1: The Lahore High Court chief justice on Thursday set aside appointment of Engineer Zia Latif as Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) chief executive officer being unlawful and without lawful authority.

The chief justice passed this order on a petition filed by Superintendent Engineer Attiqur Rehman Khan and also ordered fresh appointment of the CEO strictly on merit.

The petitioner had submitted that the Ministry of Water and Power appointed Zia Latif as new Lesco CEO on a contract basis in violation of rules and regulations as the Lesco board of governors was empowered to make such an appointment only.

He stated that Lesco, a registered company, was governed by its own memorandum and articles of association, had its own board of governors and was a separate and independent “legal person” under the law.

The respondent ministry had absolutely no jurisdiction or lawful authority to unilaterally issue a notification of Latif’s appointment, he said and added that even the Lesco board of directors had not approved or even endorsed the impugned appointment.

The petitioner further stated that Lesco was constitutionally mandated to be an independent entity free from government and bureaucratic influences pursuant to a policy decision taken by the Council of Common Interests (CCI).

Therefore, he said, the Ministry of Water and Power could not arrogate to itself the power to subvert the policy decision already taken by the CCI.

The petitioner also alleged that the respondent (Latif) had a service record full of departmental inquiries, allegations of corruption leading to suspension orders and warnings, and even presently he was facing criminal inquiries by FIA for corruption and corrupt practices.

He, therefore, prayed that the appointment of the respondent be set aside being illegal and without lawful authority.

In this case, the court had already suspended the notification of the respondent’s appointment and now set aside the same.

Directive to Parco MD

The Lahore High Court on Thursday directed the Parco managing director to submit a detailed reply about the availability of Euro II compliant diesel in Punjab. The court was hearing a petition against the import/purchase of 1,200 buses by the Punjab government to be run on the said diesel.

The court adjourned hearing till Nov 15 and extended the stay against the opening of tenders for the purchase of buses.

In this case, the court had allowed the government to import only 100 buses for the Bus Rapid Transit System. M/s Gujranwala City Tours (Pvt) filed a petition and contended that the government wanted to purchase 1,200 Euro II compliant diesel buses, which would be given to private bus operators on a soft-term loan basis.

The petitioner said the government would spend a huge amount from public money to purchase such buses which were to be run by the fuel called “Euro II compliant diesel” only. He said the required fuel was not available in Punjab.

He pointed out that even oil refineries had no ability to produce this diesel in near future. He prayed that the government should be restrained from purchasing these buses.

Plea against outages

The LHC chief justice adjourned hearing of a petition against unscheduled loadshedding and exemption to VVIPs premises in the country.

The CJ adjourned hearing on the request of Wapda’s counsel who sought more time to file a reply to the petition.

Judicial Activism Panel Chairman Azhar Siddique filed the petition and submitted that Punjab was being subjected to discrimination and given less electricity share.

He said in other provinces, power theft was at large scale while the bill recovery at low even then Punjab was being victimised in load management plan. He pointed out that the power production was being affected due to non recovery of bills from other provinces.

The petitioner said the government had doubled the miseries of people by exempting VVIPs from loadshedding.

He stated that the failure in supplying electricity was violating fundamental rights as envisaged in the Constitution especially under its articles 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 19-A, 23, 24 and 25.