Islamabad:
Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday sought help from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) regarding his administrator pool while maintaining the residence order against convening the high-powered selection council meeting to promote FBR officers.
IHC Justice Sardar Ijaz Ishaq Khan heard a petition file by Shah Bano Ghaznavi, an FBR officer in Class 21, against excluding her from being considered to promotion to class 22. The court said it was for the first time an officer raised this question and the court would see it to future officers.
During the consultation, Afnan Karim Kundi, the lawyer of FBR, said that the board met after two years, but this time also the FBR officer could not get the campaign. He added that senior officers who would retire in June or July were affected.
Justice Khan noted that this was going on both sides and it had already happened. He asked the lawyer to seek instructions from the FBR to answer the court’s request, about the decision to send Ghaznavi to the Administrator Pool correctly.
The judge said he would leave the residence order on a clear response to the court’s request. However, he warned that if the FBR could not satisfy the court, he would call the FBR chairman personally to respond to the court’s request.
The judge asked the lawyer to inform the court if it was legal to include FBR officers in the admin pool; If legal, then an officer in the admin pool could be stored in the admin pool; What was the legal status of the admin pool and what were FBR’s official instructions regarding the admin pool.
The lawyer’s lawyer told the court that during the addiction of the case, a new notification was issued, after which an officer could be considered for promotion twice. However, the judge refused to consider the message at this stage of the case.
The FBR lawyer said, according to the criteria, there should be three best personal evaluation reports (PERS) during the six annual period for the promotion of any officer in Class 22. The petitioner’s lawyer said Ghaznavi had two excellent Pers, but she did not get the promotion earlier.
The lawyer claimed that a false investigation was initiated against the petitioner so that she could not be considered for promotion, pending an investigation. And now she had been placed in the admin pool. Justice Khan noted that this was an old tactic.
Justice Sardar Ijaz Ishaq Khan asked the lawyer what was going on throughout the government. If there was honesty at the top, there would also be honesty at the bottom, but if the top was not equal, there could also be no integrity at the bottom.
The FBR lawyer said the admin pool had a purpose and that it was not intended to punish anyone. At it, the judge stopped the lawyer and said he gave irrelevant arguments. The lawyer stated that the administrator pool was a stop gap event before an officer’s new appointment.
Justice Khan noted that a person could be stored in the pool for 10, 15 years 20 days. Then he asked the lawyer if the officer could be stored in the admin pool for nine months or ten months or even a period of one year. “This is a completely arbitrary power to include any officer in this pool as long as you want.”
FBR member Hamid Atiq requested the court to leave the residence order at the board meeting and said he had the service for 35 years and that he retired in July. At that, the petitioner Ghaznavi said she was the most senior officer and that ATIQ was eight years of junior for her.
Justice Khan noted that this was the first time an officer has raised her voice and the court would look at the case not for a person’s sake, but for the future officers. The court maintained the order order and postponed the hearing of the case until Friday (tomorrow).
