Daily Times

A division bench of Lahore High Court on Monday directed to an Assistant Attorney General (AAG) to seek instructions from the cabinet division secretary that what process had been initiated regarding the appointment of chairman and technical member in Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

The bench comprising Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza and Justice Shahid Karim sought report from the AAG by January 10, 2019.

The bench observed that there must be a permanent appointed in PTA for which the process should be completed expeditiously by the incumbent government.

AAG submitted that the impugned advertisement regarding the appointment of PTA chairman, member technical and finance member had been withdrawn.

Petitioner counsel Sheraz Zaka submitted that Muhammad Naveed was acting on temporary basis as PTA chairman which was against the law. He submitted that the superior courts had always discouraged ad-hoc appointments in regulatory bodies.

Sheraz Zaka submitted that the process has not been completed for the past one year and hence the court should interfere. He said that the caretaker government had appointment Naveed as acting chairman which had no legal authority to appoint an acting chairman for PTA.

He argued that it was the only prerogative of the federal government to appoint chairman and other members of PTA. He appealed to declare appointment of Naveed as illegal.

Published in Daily Times, December 18^th 2018.