ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday declared the appointment of Arshad Khan as chairman of the Pakistan Television (PTV) and independent directors of the state broadcaster’s board as “null and void”.

A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani announced the verdict in different petitions challenging the appointments made in the PTV.

The IHC bench also directed that Arshad Khan would not be appointed on any other post in future in the state-owned broadcaster. It also declared the appointments of five independent directors of the PTV board of directors as illegal.

The court further declared the appointments of Managing Director Amir Manzoor and Chief News and Current Affairs Quatrina Hosain as legal.

The petitioners moved their petitions through their counsels including Ali Nawaz Kharral and Umair Baloch Advocate, and adopted that Arshad Khan and five members of the BoDs of PTV were “illegally and unlawfully” appointed.

The petitioner had contended that the Supreme Court held in its judgment that though the federal government was empowered under Section 183 (b) of the Companies Ordinance 1984 read with Article 83 of AOA to appointment a Director to the Board of PTVC but it had to do so by following the procedure prescribed in Clause (iii) of SI No 141 of the Esta Code and the process additionally required transparency, merit and fairness in the appointment of public functionaries.

He had argued that the Supreme Court had directed time and again to fill public sector posts strictly in accordance with the law, and keeping in view the eligibility based on an objective criterion.

He maintained that the appointment of Arshad Khan was in utter and gross violation of PLD 2012 SC 132 (Tauqir Sadiq’s case) and 2013 SCMR 1159 (Ashraf Tiwana’s case).

Therefore, in his petition, he had prayed before the court it might declare the appointment of Arshad Khan as chairman PTVC as illegal, unlawful, and based on extraneous considerations.

He had requested the court to declare his appointment in violation of and negation of the provisions and requirements postulated by the Companies Act 2017 and the Rules of 2013 and the judgment passed by this court dated 7-5-2019.

The petitioner had also requested the court to direct the respondents to commence the process of appointment of Director(s) of the BoD of the PTV including the chairman thereof in accordance with the law i.e Public Sector Companies (Corporate Governance) Rules, 2013.

In another petition, the appointments of Quatrina Hosain, Chief News and Current Affairs, Nasir A Naqvi, Chief Technology Officer, Usman Bajwa, Chief Finance Officer, Atif Zareef, Chief Digital Officer, and Khawar Azhar, Head of Marketing and Content, were also challenged.

The appointments of the respondents were challenged on the ground that the appointments having been made without adhering to the due process of law in as much as, the posts were not advertised and the procedure as adopted was not in accordance with the law, and the innumerable judgments rendered by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and therefore, culminating as a result of a non-transparent process, the appointments are to be set aside by declaring as illegal and void ab intio.

The petition had contended, “The appointed individuals may excel in their respective fields, however that alone cannot be the determinative factor; there are more qualified and accomplished professionals in the market who if given a chance would have been willing to serve PTVC. However a non-participatory process limits such talent from being part of a competitive pool wherefrom the best are chosen to represent and perform their services for a national/public sector enterprise.”

Therefore, the court was requested that the appointments of the respondent in the establishment of the PTVC vide the impugned process and the notifications thereto, may be set aside and be declared as illegal, unlawful, void ab initio and a result of an in competitive and opaque process. —TERENCE J SIGAMONY