Supreme Court takes suo moto notice of CDA chief removal

The Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry Sunday took notice of the  transfer of chairman CDA and directed Secretary Cabinet and the Secretary Interior to appear on Monday.

The court also ordered the officials to produce notifications and summaries in respect of the transfers and postings and intimate as to why the aforesaid notifications of premature transfers, which are prima facie violative of the judgment of this Court, be not set aside and  further directed to issue notices to  M/s Tahir Shahbaz and Tariq Pirzada the former and the incumbent Chairmen, CDA.

The action was taken on a note initiated by the office based on press clippings of different newspapers containing the details that before departure, the PPP government sent packing the chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Saturday. He was sacked for resisting allotting choice plots in choice sectors of Islamabad to many key bureaucrats.

It was further reported that the one major reason for the Government’s annoyance with reputed Tahir Shahbaz was the latter’s recent reply to a Supreme Court’s query that is likely to seal the fate of an influential politician. Mr Tahir Shahbaz was appointed as Chairman CDA only 5 months back i.e. October 2012, was supposed to keep a mum like obedient Government servant but he did not do that.

“Consequently, the officer has been removed abruptly on the last day of government and without assigning any reason,” the notice said.

This abrupt transfer of Tahir Shahbaz is a violation of the Supreme Court’s order dated 12th November, 2012.

The Supreme Court had provided the much needed protection to the government servant from whimsical and arbitrary postings and transfers by directing the Federal and Provincial Government that they must respect the tenure of an officer against a post and that no government servant should be prematurely transferred without giving reasons in writings. However, despite clear directions, Tahir Shahbaz has been prematurely removed.

The note also quoted the judgment dated 12th November, 2012 passed in Const. Petition 23/2012 (petition by Ms. Anita Turab for protection of civil servants) authored by Mr Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, wherein it was held as under: –

“22. (i) Appointments, Removals and Promotions: Appointments, removals and promotions must be made in accordance with the law and the rules made thereunder; where no such law or rule exists and the matter has been left to discretion, such discretion must be exercised in a structured, transparent and reasonable manner and in the public interest.”

After going through the contents of the note, the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry passed the following order:-

“Let these news clippings be registered as CMA in Constitution Petition No.23/2012 (petition by Ms. Anita Turab for protection of civil servants) and fixed before the Bench headed by the Hon’ble Author Judge of the said judgment on 18.3.2013. Notices be issued to the Secretary Cabinet and the Secretary Interior, Government of Pakistan to appear and produce notifications and summaries in respect of the said transfers and postings and intimate as to why the aforesaid notifications of premature transfers, which are prima facie violative of the above noted judgment of this Court, be not set aside. Notices be also issued to M/s Tahir Shahbaz and Tariq Pirzada the former and the incumbent Chairmen, CDA”.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Mar 17 2013. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.