Rejecting the plea of former defence secretary Lt General (r) Naeem Khalid Lodhi seeking interim relief by cancellation of the notification of Nargis Sethi’s appointment as acting defence secretary and to restore him to his position, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday directed the president and establishment secretary not to appoint any other officer to the post currently assigned to Sethi. The court maintained the status quo of the defence secretary’s post until the final decision on the writ petition filed by Lt Gen (r) Lodhi against his dismissal. Issuing the order, the court disposed of the civil miscellaneous application filed by Lodhi and adjourned the hearing of his writ petition.
Lt Gen (r) Lodhi was removed from the post of defence secretary by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in January, after which he moved the IHC against his dismissal and filed two petitions seeking to reverse the orders. A single member bench, comprising Justice Azim Khan Afridi, was hearing his two petitions filed through his counsel FK Butt citing President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, the cabinet secretary, establishment secretary and acting defence secretary as respondents.
In the civil miscellaneous application, the court ordered that on the basis of the notification dated 11/1/2012, the petitioner had been relieved of the charge of defence secretary and the post had already been assigned to Nargi Sethi in an acting capacity, so the petitioner’s plea for reinstatement on the strength of an interim order could not be accepted. Lt Gen (r) Lodhi’s counsel submitted that his client was terminated by the prime minister without any prior notice and requested the court to cancel the termination orders. He also requested the court to cancel the notification of the appointment of Sethi as acting defence secretary. However, Deputy Attorney General Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri contended that Lt Gen (r) Lodhi was working on a two-year contract and according to the rules for contractual employees, the government could terminate them whenever it wanted by paying them a month’s salary in advance. The counsel for Lt Gen (r) Lodhi contended that the premier terminated his client with a view to clear the way for further illegal steps to arbitrarily remove the army chief and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director general (DG) for the fulfilment of his political agenda “to ruin this country”.
The ex-sectary Defence , Mr Ather Ali terminated the contract on June 30, 2011. Details are mentioned below:-
It is recalled that Prime Minster , Pakistan on 14th August, 2011 addressed to the nation and the applicant appraoched to PM , Public Sectriate with following written request for re-instatement as Research Officer.
"On the occasion of Jishni Azazi ! Addressing to the nation, Yoursgoodself said that the sacked employees are being restored and contract employees are regularized. Understandably, "Benzir-i-gi, Rozgar li gi" and PPPs "Roti, Kapra , Makan" is a right of every citizen but same contractual obligation, in my case, as Research Officer M&E Cell Ministry of Defence for more than four years Services ,got terminated arbitrarily. Whereas a Civil Servant Appeal addressed to yours good self in last week of this July got posted to PM Secretariat .The envelop contains a Pray of Writ Petition being allowed by Rawalpindi Bench Lahore High Court as Anwar Ali Vs Federation of Pakistan (Respondents Sect Defence & AS-II Defence Sectt Rawalpindi)"
2. An Intra Court Appeal in writ Petition No 1750 got placed in Ist week of Dec, 2011 to Double Bench at Rawalpindi after the Ministry’s respondent misguided the court that due to paucity of funds and financial constraints, temporary posts could not be converted on regular footing. On the other hand, Ministry of Defence has already issued Regularization of post's Notification on 9th July,2011. Supporting staff of M&E Cell were provided Pension No on their pay slip since 2009 and requesting the same fair treatment caused me losing of job.
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3. That the Government has to treat all the employees at par in respect of the privileges and other service benefits as there appears to be no earthly reason benefiting a certain group of persons and depriving other similarly placed persons with same post and job description.
4. Minstry of Defence had appointed an Ex MPA’s son i.e. Sajjad Ihsan Khan s/o Ihsan Ullah Khan of Charsada on the post of Assistant Chief M&E Cell without conducting test. He was provided contract extension through Additional Secretary –II i.e. Syed Najmul-Asar’s level recommendation.
5. As per rule/policy, sacked employees are re-instated whereas a 34 years Youngster got jobless without any penalty awarded in last 4 ½ years service as a pioneer member in M&E Cell, Defence Division. The case of the applicant is a discriminatory one by Defence Ministry.
6. On 11th Jan, 2011 Double Bench asked the respondent Minstry to appear in Rawalpindi Branch but the same day Prime Minster sacked Secretary Defence. I had to travel from Malkand Agency , KPK for seeking justice from Honorable Court.
7 It is therefore requested that my true story be published so Prime Minster of Pakistan could be sensitized by discriminatory treatment meted out to me.
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