Setting aside the Sindh High Court verdict on Wednesday, the Supreme Court restored services of CEO of the government-owned power generation GENCO Holding Company Limited, observing the government is not bound to consult employees of an organisation while taking the decision to appoint head of a company.
A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar passed this order on Wednesday as it suspended a Sindh High Court (SHC) verdict in response to federation appeal in the matter.
The federal government has issued an appointment notification of Muhammad Imran Charted Accountant on January 04, 2018, however, Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority Employees secretary-general Muhammad Sajan Panhwar challenged the notification before SHC’s Hyderabad bench.
He contended that the CEO Muhammad Imran lacked the required engineering qualifications under the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) Act, 1976, and the various verdicts of the Supreme Court. Consequently, the SHC’ divisional bench Hyderabad set aside appointment notification of the Muhammad Imran Chief Executive Officer of GENCO Holding Company Limited (GHCL), which runs four power generation companies.
The SHC has accepted petitioner’ counsel and Pakistan Engineering Council lawyer Rizwan Ali Memon argument that under the provisions of Pakistan Engineering Council Act 1975, it is a basic requirement that no person unless registered as an Engineer could hold any post in any engineering organization where he has to perform professional engineering work. The categorically sought the SHC review against the notification saying the CEO of the GHCL had to be a professional engineer as managing power plants was a pure engineering specialty.
Assailing the verdict before Supreme Court on June 22, 2021, Additional Attorney General for Pakistan contended that the SHC has declared GHCL’ CEO service notification when relied upon the top court verdict in appointment of CEO of the Pakistan International Airlines case.
During the proceedings on Wednesday, Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed observed that employees of the company had nothing to do with appointment of head of the GENCO saying it was not mandatory for the government to consult employees of a company who should be appointed head of the company.
Similarly, a member of the bench Justice Ijazul Ahsan observed nothing was described in the top court verdict over PIA’s head appointment case to get inference that the national flag carrier chief would be a pilot.
He remarked, “Chief Executive Officer of the PIA is supposed to run the affairs of company business instead of flying aircraft”, adding whether it is mandatory for the head of the GHCL to be an engineer. Justice Ijazul Ahsan raised a question saying whether the job description of the CEO of the power company demands to run the turbine or to run the company?
Later, accepting the federation appeal the bench granted leave to appeal in the matter after suspending the SHC verdict in the matter and directed the fixture branch to fix the case for hearing after 3 months.
