News
Friday, January 21, 2011
SC seeks details of contractual top officers in police and FIA
* Court says officers will have to explain under which authority they were appointed, why their notifications should not be cancelled
* CJP says 75 people killed in Karachi
By Hasnaat Malik
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Establishment Division to furnish a list of all police officers, including the FIA director general, who had been appointed on contract by today (Friday).
The court said that details of such contractual officials holding portfolios of director generals or inspector generals, should contain the reasons and necessity under which they were employed by the government to the highest offices as these were directly related to maintaining rule of law.
A six-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, while hearing the suo motu case regarding irregularities in Hajj arrangements, expressed its concern over the scope of power of the new investigation officer for the Hajj scandal besides indicating action against the FIA DG over inadequate investigation into the case.
“Such officers will have to appear and explain under which authority they were appointed on these posts and why should their notifications not be cancelled,” the order added.
The court said in terms of definition of Section 2 (1) (b) (ii) of the Civil Servants Act 1973, a person who is employed on contract does not even fall within the definition of a civil servant, so his authority to command and maintain discipline can well be imagined from the fact that if a person himself is not a civil servant, he is considered only bound by the terms and conditions of his contract and not by the statutory law, because if any condition laid down in the contract is violative to statutory law, he would only be subject to action under the said contract
During the course of proceedings, the AGP told the court that in pursuance of the court’s order, the FIA DG had been removed from the investigation of the Hajj scam, while Jawed Ali Shah Bukhari has been assigned the task to probe the scam independently.
The CJ said since that the FIA DG was himself working on a contract basis and did not fall in the definition of a civil servant, how could Jawed Ali Shah Bukhari, the IG police, work under his command.
Earlier, the CJ expressed reservations over target killings in Karachi and observed that even the IG Sindh had been appointed on a contract basis, which had led to the killing of 75 people in Karachi in January alone. He said one of the reasons of lawlessness in Karachi was the contractual IG, as he had no command being a contractual employee.
Later, the court adjourned the hearing until January 27.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk