Haj corruption case: Supreme Court asks government not to re-employ officers on contract

The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered federal as well as provincial governments not to re-employ officers on contract basis further, directing the Attorney General for Pakistan to ask the government to shun the practice of giving jobs to the retired officers.
A seven-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary and comprising Justices Javed Iqbal, Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Asif Saeed Khosa, Ghulam Rabbani and Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday was hearing the case of Haj corruption. Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) presented some additional evidences before the court against the former religious affairs minister, Hamid Saeed Kazmi, about his alleged involvement in the scam.
Additional director general FIA Javed Bukhari told the court that the agency had found Shagufta Jumani, state minister for religious affairs, involved in the corruption scandal on the basis of material evidences against her. The statement of Zain Sukhera was read in the court in which he had admitted that he met Rao Shakeel in Saudi Arabia in 2010 while Abdul Qadir Gilani, the son of Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, was his class fellow in Aitcheson College.
Bukhari said according to Zain Sukhaira statement, he travelled with Prime Minister Gilani's family to Saudi Arabi twice. He had done LLM but was appointed IT consultant in the ministry of science and technology on reasons best known to the government.
Quoting another mismanagement episode, Bukhari said that they were also probing why a big building was hired in Saudi Arabia during Haj, which largely remained vacant, causing loss of Rs 20 million to the national exchequer. Justice Javed Iqbal observed that after hearing the statement that it seemed facts were being sidelined due to some pressure from some quarters.
Meanwhile, Attorney Ggeneral Molvi Anwarul Haq presented a list of 13 police officials in the apex court, appointed on contract basis including Salahuddin Khattak, Waseem Ahmed, Tariq Jameel, Major Khurram Gulzar (Retd), Nadir Hussain Khosa, Din Muhammad Baloch, Lieutenant Colonel Farman Ali (Retd), Mian Akhtar Hayat and Asghar Muhammad.
The court observed that prima facie reemploying them was in violation of section 14 of Civil Servant Act, 1873 as well as instruction contained in ESTACODE. The court also said that in reemploying them, previous judgements of superior court were not adhered to.
The court asked the AG to take up the matter with competent authority for rectifying any omission if committed before next date of hearing. The court also directed the provinces to examine and submit the report if any officer has been reemployed after retirement
The court observed that for establishing rule of law, it was necessary that relevant provisions of the constitution should be followed strictly, otherwise it would not be possible to provide an effective governance machinery to implement law particularly in case of police. The court also observed that this was also in violation of law and tantamount to blocking promotion of deserving junior officers.
Justice Chaudhry was of the view that the culture of favouritism and nepotism should be done away with for making appointments in government departments purely on merit. The court also sought list of FIA and OSD officials. Meanwhile, the court rejected FIA report regarding investigation of Haj corruption, saying there are many flaws in it as it was not conducted in an appropriate manner because so many important issues have been left out.
The attorney general placed new notification before the court, which states that Syed Jawed Ali Shah Bukhari, a BPS 21 police officer, was fully empowered to independently probe into the Haj scam. Javed Bukhari, additional director general FIA, informed the court that an FIA official Hussain Asghar had been sent to Saudi Arabia to probe the Haj scam. The court directed the FIA to submit weekly progress report about the case and adjourned hearing till February 10.