The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday reprimanded Finance Secretary Waqar Masood for not appearing before the court despite a notice in a case related to promotions in the department.
On a petition filed by Sindh Accountant General (AG) Muhammad Ehsan, who contended that the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) was not being convened while he was awaiting promotion, the court had asked the finance secretary to furnish an explanation. The finance secretary, however, skipped court hearing set for December 14, 2015 without intimating the bench.
The court withdrew the show cause notice on the assurance from the finance secretary that the meeting of the DPC would be convened soon to address promotion related matters.
Justice Amir Hani Muslim asked during the hearing why non-bailable arrest warrants should not be issued against the finance secretary since he had failed to appear before the court despite explicit orders and had not even informed the court about his absence. “When a case is fixed for hearing, you people start working on files, otherwise, you turn a deaf ear to the matter,” he said and added, “When the court takes notice of things, meetings start taking place. We will not allow this. It means if the court shows strictness, then you do the work. Otherwise, no job is done.”
The finance secretary told the court that eight meetings had been held in connection with promotion related matters from 2011 to 2015 and 266 promotions had been approved.
The finance secretary said that he had issued orders before coming to the court. Two meetings of the DPC would be held in a year with regard to departmental promotions.
The court remarked that he should have done this long ago, but nevertheless withdrew the show cause notice.
