The Supreme Court on Thursday reprimanded Secretary Finance Waqar Masood for not appearing before the court despite a notice for a case related to promotions.
On a petition filed by Sindh Accountant General (AG)Muhammad Ehsan, who contended that the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) was not being convened while he was awaiting promotion, the court asked the finance secretary for explanation, who had skipped the court hearing without intimating the bench.
The court withdrew the show cause notice on the assurance from the finance secretary that the meeting of the DPC will soon be convened to address promotion related matters.
“Why did you not show up despite the fact that you were issued a show cause notice? You did not file your explanation. Why should the non-bailable arrest warrants not be issued against you? When a case is fixed for hearing, you people start working on files; otherwise, you ignore the matter. When the court takes notice of things, meetings start taking place. We will not allow this. It means if the court shows strictness then you do work, otherwise no job is done,” Justice Amir Hani Muslim remarked.
The finance secretary told the court that eight meetings have been held in connection with promotion related matters from 2011 to 2015, and 266 promotions were approved.
“Don’t teach us about upgradation. We all know about these all things,” Justice Muslim remarked.
“I issued orders before coming to court. Two meetings of the DPC will be held in a year with regards to departmental promotions,” the finance secretary said.
The court remarked, “You should have done this job earlier.”
The court, however, withdrew the show cause notice on the assurance that meetings will be held to sort out the department’s promotions related matters.
Sindh AG Muhammad Ehsan had filed a petition in the SC that he was not being promoted because the DPC meeting was not being held. Notices were issued; however, the finance secretary did not appear in the court on December 14, 2015.
Later, he was served a show cause notice but it was withdrawn by the court.