PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Service Tribunal has yet again set aside the appointment of secretary of the provincial assembly Nasrullah Khan and directed Speaker Mushtaq Ghani to constitute a new departmental promotion committee to make recommendations for the BPS-21 vacancy.

Tribunal chairman Ahmad Sultan Tareen and member Rozina Rehman accepted the appeal filed by senior additional secretary of the provincial assembly Kifayatullah Khan Afridi against the appointment of secretary Nasrullah Khan insisting that the latter was junior to him, so his appointment violated an earlier order of the tribunal.

They set aside the DPC’s decision made on Jan 10, 2021, and a notification issued on Jan 11 by the speaker for the appointment of Mr Nasrullah as the secretary of the assembly.

The tribunal directed the speaker to ensure that the officers to be considered for promotion, especially the appellant, be given an opportunity to object the DPC’s nominees.

Asks speaker to form new departmental promotion committee

It added that the DPC so constituted after settlement of objections, if any, would consider panelists for promotion in light of the directions given in the earlier judgment of the tribunal on Dec 17, 2020, excluding the need for performance evaluation report of the appellant for the year 2017 and onward.

The tribunal also turned down the plea of the respondent (Nasrullah) that the appeal was not maintainable.

The legal battle between the two officers for the coveted secretary post has been going on for many years. The respondents in the petition were the provincial assembly’s speaker, the DPC through its secretary, and secretary of the assembly Nasrullah Khan.

Advocate Ali Azim Afridi appeared for the appellant and contended that there were several rounds of litigation regarding the issue.

He said in Dec last year, the tribunal had declared illegal the promotion of additional secretary Nasrullah Khan as the secretary of the assembly and set aside the relevant notification.

The lawyer said the tribunal had accepted the appeal of the appellant, who had insisted that contrary to an earlier judgment of the tribunal, the DPC had recommended in 2019 the promotion of Nasrullah Khan from the post of the additional secretary.

He added that the tribunal had set aside the DPC’s decision of Sept 2, 2019, and subsequent notification issued by the assembly’s speaker on Sept 3, 2019 for the promotion of the respondent (Nasrullah) as the assembly’s secretary.

The counsel pointed out that the tribunal had directed the relevant officials to constitute the DPC in accordance with law and the DPC should consider the matter of promotion to the post of the secretary of the assembly in light of the decision made on a previous appeal of the appellant as well as the instant judgment strictly in accordance with the law and rules.

He added that the tribunal had ruled that the appellant was senior most among the assembly’s additional secretaries (BPS-20) but that factor was ignored by the DPC.

The lawyer said another judgment of the tribunal delivered in 2018 declared that seniority-cum-fitness was the sole criteria or principle for promotion to the post of the provincial assembly’s secretary (BPS-21).

He said that the impugned notification of Jan 11, 2021, to promote the respondent (Nasrullah) was totally uncalled-for and against the law governing the matter.

The counsel contended that his client had rendered more than 25 years of service in the assembly’s secretariat and held an impeccable service record, so he was entitled to promotion, but that aspect was totally ignored by the competent authority just to benefit the respondent.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2021