ONLINE
\nISLAMABAD
\nThe Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Attaul Haq Qasmi\u2019s appointment as PTV former chairman and managing director was illegal.
\nIn a short order read out by Justice Umar Atta Bandial, the court held former ministers of information and finance, Pervez Rashid and Ishaq Dar respectively, as well as former principal secretary to the prime minister Fawad Hassan Fawad responsible for Qasmi\u2019s appointment and the financial benefits he received.
\nA three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar had heard the suo motu case and a verdict was reserved earlier this year.
\nIn its detailed order, the top court pointed out \u201cirregularities\/illegalities\u201d in Qasmi\u2019s appointment as managing director as well as the chairman of the state broadcaster.
\n\u201cSummaries were moved for relaxation of the upper age limit of 65 years for such appointment and for the approval of a handsome salary package of Rs.1,500,000\/- in addition to other perks,\u201d the verdict said. The bench also noted that a \u201csum of Rs 284,163,733 was paid to [Qasmi] and\/or expense incurred by him or on his behalf\u201d.
\nThe verdict further said that PTV is a public sector entity, therefore, the appointment and perks granted to Qasmi were open for scrutiny \u201cparticularly considering the seemingly arbitrary manner in which he was appointed, despite being overage\u201d. The court order held Qasmi responsible for PTV\u2019s \u201csharp decline both financially and in its reputation\u201d because he lacked the \u201cskill and experience of running a company\u201d.
\nThe detailed verdict mentioned that during the course of the case, the attorney general had informed the court that the PTV chairman is elected by its board and the government or the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage has no role in the decision.
\nHowever, Qasmi\u2019s counsel had argued that the appointment of Qasmi was made on the recommendation of the federal government that \u201cexercised its discretion that it thought fit at the relevant time and this Court has no jurisdiction to interfere with such discretion\/decision making power\u201d.
\nThe verdict acknowledged that under Article 83 of the Articles of Association of PTV, government has the authority to nominate directors to the board \u2014 as pointed out by Qasmi\u2019s lawyer \u2014 but deemed the argument irrelevant as it refers to appointment of directors and not the chairman.
\nThe bench also questioned the grounds of Qasmi\u2019s appointment, saying that in order to run an entity like PTV, \u201cbusiness management skills and experience of running a big company are the basic requirements for an MD\/Chairman\u201d, however, these requirements were not considered by the government.
\nQasmi had ignited controversy in April 2017 when he appointed himself PTV MD while also remaining the chairman of the state-run broadcaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ONLINE ISLAMABAD The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Attaul Haq Qasmi\u2019s appointment as PTV former chairman and managing director was illegal. In a short order read out by Justice Umar Atta Bandial, the court held former ministers of information and finance, Pervez Rashid and Ishaq Dar respectively, as well as former principal secretary to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34345","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n