ISLAMABAD, May 22: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday disposed of the petition related to the transfer of senior officials of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and directed the FBR Chairman Ansar Javed to review the transfers.
The petitioners included FBR Chief Commissioner Peshawar Yousuf Ghaffar Khan, Chief Commissioner Regional Taxpayers Office Karachi Nasir Butt, Chief Commissioner RTO Lahore Shafqat Mehmood, Member Inland Revenue (Operation) Mohammad Raza Baqir and Director General Custom Intelligence Khalid Mehmood, who had approached the IHC against the orders of their transfer.
Earlier, IHC Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui had, on April 24, suspended the orders of the transfers and postings of top FBR officials.
In separate writ petitions, the FBR officials said the transfers and postings in Grade 21 required approval of the Secretary Revenue Division and the Prime Minister. The chairman of FBR could not do this unilaterally.
Barrister Masroor Shah, the counsel of Khalid Mehmood and Raza Baqir, adopted before court that the postings of his clients had been made arbitrarily and in violation of the judgments passed by the superior courts.
“My clients had been given important posts by Ali Arshad Hakeem, the former Chairman FBR, but Ansar Javed, after replacing Mr Hakeem, ordered their transfer and postings,” the counsel said.
According to him, his clients were grade 21 offices of the FBR and had been assigned desk jobs by the incumbent chairman.
The counsel said that in the light of the Anita Turab case judgment passed by the Supreme Court, the authority could not post or transfer an officer prior to the completion of a three-year term at a particular position.
In case of extreme urgency, the authority had to justify the posting or transfer with cogent reasons, he added.
On the other hand, FBR counsel Barrister Zafarullah Khan maintained that the transfer of FBR officers had been made within the permitted space of the apex court orders, and was based on compelling administrative reasons.
He said the petitions of FBR officers were misconceived as there was no adverse order against them, adding that the petitions were based on personal agenda.
“The transfer of an official is part of the terms and condition of his service and the matter falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Service Tribunal (FST). Therefore, the petitioners cannot invoke the jurisdiction of the IHC and the petition is liable to be dismissed,” he said.
Disposing of the petitions, the court directed the FBR chairman to examine the transfers of the officers in light of the Supreme Court judgment passed in the Anita Turab case.
According to this judgment, executive authorities cannot make transfers or postings without compelling circumstances so that transfers are not used to settle scores with subordinate officers.