PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has dismissed a petition of former provincial minister Ziaullah Afridi against the appointment of 19 people to key posts of the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation around three years ago.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mohammad Nasir Mehfooz pronounced a short order of the petition’s rejection after the conclusion of arguments by counsel for different parties in the case.

The petitioner had challenged the recruitments in question on multiple grounds claiming the posts in question didn’t exist at the time of the appointment of 19 people in 2015.

Ex-minister had moved PHC against recruitment of 19 people by energy organisation

He had requested to declare the said 19 appointments as illegal.

The petitioner had also prayed the court to issue directives to the provincial chief secretary, provincial water and power secretary, Pedo board of directors and its chief executive to implement the recommendations of the provincial inspection team for the cancelation of the recruitment process and re-advertising of the posts after removing the deficiencies pointed out by it.

Waqar Ali, lawyer for the petitioner, said the 19 Pedo posts were advertised on July 22, 2015, though there were neither any service rules for them nor were the jobs described.

He added that the description of those posts was discussed in the seventh meeting of the HR Committee on Oct 27, 2015, while the board had delegated its powers to that committee under Section 22 of the Pedo Act for hiring of professionals and not to the CEO.

The lawyer said the Pedo’s board in its first meeting on May 19, 2014 had discussed the ‘organogram’ of the organisation, which was approved by the chief minister.

He said the 19 posts to which the recruitments were made were not mentioned in the organogram.

The lawyer said an inquiry was conducted by the provincial inspection team into those appointments and that in its report filed on May 19, 2016, the team had questioned them and made several recommendations.

The Pedo’s lawyer, Shumail Ahmad Butt, said the provincial government had decided to fully corporatise Pedo and run it like a company and that decision was upheld even by the high court in an earlier case when the employees had challenged it.

He said the Pedo worked under supervision of its BoD and amended Pedo Act authorized the BoD to hire anyone including professionals from the private sector.

Mr Butt argued that Pedo had been run by government sector for 30 years but it wasn’t performing well due to which the provincial government decided to give the management to the private sector.

He contended that the corporate setup saved money because of leaner management and fewer positions with relevant expertise.

The lawyer said the hiring was not done by the CEO rather that was done by the HR Committee of the board.

He said the HR Committee in its fifth meeting had approved structure of the key talent or any other critical resource as determined by the CEO from the corporate sector on market-based salaries and had asked the CEO to start recruitment process and induct talented people in the Pedo at the earliest.

The lawyer also said Section 7(2) of the Pedo Act empowered the CEO to make appointments and hence, the allegations raised by the petitioner in that respect were wrong and based on mala fide intentions.

Mr Butt pointed out that the decision of hiring key professionals by the BoD took place in its sixth meeting held on Feb 17, 2015, while the decision by the HR Committee was made on Mar 10, 2015.

He said the petitioner had no right to impugn the internal affairs of Pedo, which was a corporate body and even otherwise the petition was based on false assertions.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2018