PESHAWAR, April 26: A division bench of the Peshawar High Court has directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Company to prepare a seniority list of its officials within three months.

The bench comprising Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Tallat Qayyum Qureshi directed the PTCL that the provisional seniority list should be circulated among the officials by July 30, the date fixed for next hearing.

The order was issued in a writ petition filed by a divisional engineer of the PTCL, Jehanzaib Khan, who sought directives for the issuance of the seniority list, saying in the absence of any such list the promotion of officers had become controversial.

Since 1995 no seniority list has been issued and many of the PTCL employees included in that list have either died or retired.

Qazi Mohammad Anwer, advocate, appeared for the petitioner and contended that it was mandatory on the company to issue the list so that the officials could be aware about their seniority.

Qazi Anwer pointed out that even the 1995 list was provisional and was not circulated among officials in accordance with the Civil Servants Rules.

Hafiz S.A.Rehman appeared for the PTCL and contended that by the end of the year the company would be privatized and added that the 1995 list was a proper one as the petitioner had no grievance against it.

The counsel requested the bench that it would not be possible for the company to prepare the list within three months, therefore a bit longer time should be given to them. However, the bench turned down his request.