ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday issued notices to the secretary interior in a petition challenging the appointment of Syed Munawar Shah as member (engineering) of the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
A single bench of Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb issued the notices, in a petition filed by a lawyer, Shahzad Siddiqui Alvi, who cited the secretary interior, the chairman CDA, and others as respondents.
The petitioner stated that according to available information, Syed Munawar is an officer of the Pakistan Railways and he was originally inducted in BS-11 as a sub-engineer in the Pakistan Railways, while he purportedly holds a degree of BSc Engineering from a university in the Philippines.
He added that furthermore, the status of the respondent’s registration with the Pakistan Engineering Council was unclear and there was a real possibility that the same had lapsed and he was not currently licensed to perform the professional role of an engineer or to hold a position, which primarily required performance of duties as an engineer or the supervision of such activities.
The petitioner adopted that the CDA was responsible for making all arrangements for the planning and development of Islamabad and the direction and administration of the Respondent No 2 (chairman CDA) vests in its Board, which was made up of the members of the Authority and was constituted under section 6 of the Ordinance, 1960.
However, he maintained that Shah, by virtue of holding a post in the Pakistan Railways, was first and foremost an officer of the executive.
He continued that the post of member engineering was a technical post, and any person holding the post must not only have the necessary qualifications to perform the role adequately, but the person must also have remained actively involved in such activities and have reached the zenith (surely not as a mere administrator).
“The curriculum vitae of the Respondent No 4 shows that he does not have the necessary experience or qualifications nor has he remained in an active role with regard to performance of engineering activities,” said the petitioner.
He argued that the appointment of the Respondent No 4 (Munawar Shah) as member (engineering) CDA Board was manifestly unlawful, illegal, without lawful authority, unreasonable, and arbitrary.
Therefore, he prayed before the court to direct the respondents to show under what authority of law Shah had been appointed as member (engineering) CDA Board and direct Respondent No 3 (Pakistan Engineering Council) to verify the degree and credentials of Munawar Shah.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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