Islamabad:
The High Court of Islamabad (IHC) rejected the president of the country’s internet and telecommunications regulator – Pakistan Telecommunication Authority – given its illegal hiring.
The court also ordered one of the high members of the PTA to take charge of the organization as an acting president and asked the federal government to appoint a new president through a transparent process in accordance with the rules for the appointment of the PTA and the telecommunications law.
The bench also asked his office to send a copy of the judgment to the secretary of the cabinet and the members of the PTA for the implementation. Meanwhile, the disadvantaged manager, the general of division (RETD) Hafezur Rehman, posed an intra-cout call against the verdict.
A single IHC bench including Judge Babar Sattar unveiled its order on the conclusion of the procedure initiated on the basis of a complaint filed by Usama Khilji on Tuesday.
In 2023, Khilji challenged an advertising, announcing a vacancy for the office of the member of the PTA (Midi en AD) and inviting the requests of the candidates.
The petitioner argued that the position of Member (Administration) was undergoing the provisions of the 1996 law on the reorganization of Pakistani telecommunications – Telecommunications Act – and the President and Member of the PTA (appointment and qualifications), 2013 – PTA appointment rule.
He had asked the court to prevent the federal government from filling the position of member (administration) on the basis of advertising.
While admitting the petition for hearing, the IHC on May 24, 2023 allowed the government to carry out the process of solicitation and processing of requests in accordance with advertising.
However, he clearly indicated that any appointment made in accordance with such a process would be subject to the end of the petition “and to the determination of whether there is a rational basis for the federal government to prescribe disparate eligibility criteria for the PTA member positions”.
Later, the authority appointed Major-General (RETD) Hafezur Rehman first as a member of the PTA (Ad-Sinistration) and later as president of the authority.
The 99-page ordinance said that advertising was an ultra-vires, article 3 of the telecommunications law and the rules of appointment of the PTA at the time when advertising was published and the pro-recruitment lacked integrity and suffered from malafide in law.
He said that the measures taken by the government to fulfill the position of member (administration) in accordance with advertising were not lasting in the eyes of the law and have no legal effect.
“The whole building of processes and decisions based on an illegal basis must collapse on these illegal foundations. Like the contested advertising and the recruitment process undertaken there, under the mediation of maliciousness, all subsequent decisions in the pursuit of this process, in particular the appointment of the respondent n ° 4 as a member (administration) and the president PTA, are illegal, ultra-virla.
He indicated that the creation of the member’s position (Administration) was ultra vires article 3 of the telecommunications law and had been created for foreign reasons rather than carrying out objects from the telecommunications law.
“Although such a position can be created by the federal government after taking into account the relevant considerations to achieve objects from the telecommunications law, such an action can only be undertaken while introducing appropriate amendments to article 3 (8) and (9) of the telecommunications law, as indicated in the summits for the creation of such a post presented to the Prime Minister and the Federal Cabinet.
“While the creation of the position and the prescription of qualifications for this position to adapt to the response No. 4 (president of the PTA) have been declared to suffer from a Malafid, this post will be considered as not to exist and the modifications introduced in the rules of appointment of the PTA for these purposes are distorted to be ultra vires of articles 4, 10-A, 18 and 25 of the Constitution and 57 of the TELE-COMP.
“Like the whole process of appointment of the respondent n ° 4 as a member (administration) and as president of the PTA, it has been found that maliciousness is the product of an unconstitutional and ille-agre recruitment process, it will cease to hold such appointments and will immediately renounce costs for these functions,” said the order.
