IHC serves contempt notice on Faisal Saleh

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday issued show-cause notices to Federal Housing and Works Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat and other senior ministry officials on a contempt of court application filed against them for not complying with court orders.
Mr Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddique resumed the hearing of a plea filed against the housing minister, Secretary Kamran Lashari and Pakistan Public Works Department (Pak-PWD) Director General Zamir Ghulab for not reinstating the applicants, Superintending Engineer (Civil) Mian Masud Akhtar and Executive Engineer Rana Saleem Akhtar, to their posts despite the fact that their suspension period had passed and the same court had also directed the ministry high-ups to reinstate them. The court directed the respondents to submit their reply within two weeks. Earlier, on February 20, the same court issued the notices to the federal minister and others, asking them why they had not reinstated the applicants despite court directions.
Both the employees, Masud Akhtar and Rana Saleem, were suspended for three months in June 2011. However, they were not reinstated after the expiry of the suspension period. The counsel for the applicants, Abdur Rahim Bhatti, submitted before the court that on December 29 last, the court had ordered reinstatement of both the officers to their posts with immediate effect. But instead of complying with the court order, the authorities transferred them to Quetta.
He, however, told the court that the housing secretary had issued a notification of their reinstatement but had not taken them on duty, alleging the ministry high-ups were doing so due to some political interests. The counsel alleged that a political leader, Haider Khan Kharal who was a cousin of Faisal Saleh Hayat, was demanding a heavy bribe from his clients for their reinstatement to the posts.