IHC seeks reply on petition against ETPB chairman's appointment

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday again sought para-wise reply from federation on a plea challenging the appointment of Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) chairman.

During the course of proceedings, Chief Justice Athar Minallah asked that why the federation had not submitted its reply despite the court orders.

The prosecutor pleaded before the bench that the petition had become ineffective after a notification had been issued for the appointment of new ETPB chairman.

At this, the chief justice said such notification was issued when a petition was pending before the court.

The bench would view that whether the respondents were authorized for issuance of appointment notification when a relevant case was pending.

The court also directed the federation to submit clause-wise answers against the points raised in petition which was filed by Major Gen (retd) Muhammad Saad Khattak while adjourned the case for four weeks.

The petitioner had nominated Ministry of Religious Affairs, ETPB, Federal Cabinet, Cabinet Division and selection committee as respondents.

The petition said an advertisement had been placed in January 2019 for the post of ETPB chairman for which 10 candidates including the petitioner out of 154 candidates were called for an interview of which three were finalized.

The three shortlisted candidates included Muhammad Saad Khattak, Dr Amir Ahmed and Muhammad Hafeezullah Khan while the petitioner was on top of the list.

However, the Dr Amir Ahmed was appointed ETPB chairman and no reason was specified for his posting.

The petition prayed the court to stop government from issuing a notification and termed the appointment of chairman as illegal.