Tuesday a writ petition submitted by Engineer Javed Akhtar was approved by a divisional bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC), ordering his appointment as Member Hydropower of the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation (PEDO).
Justice Naeem Anwar and Qazi Jawad Ehsanullah on the bench reversed the province cabinet’s ruling, which had refused the appointment depending on the PEDO (Appointment and Terms and Conditions of Chief Executive and Members) Rules, 2024 criteria.
Shumail Ahmad Butt, the petitioner’s counsel, informed the court during a hearing that PEDO was reorganised in 2020 in line with the passing of a new PEDO Act. Under this law, an executive committee was given PEDO’s managerial responsibility.
The executive committee consisted, he said, the chief executive, three members representing finance, renewable energy, and hydropower, together with an extra Secretary of E&P department.
Butt contended that although Section 9(4) of the new act said that further rules will control other terms and conditions, Section 9(3) listed the qualifications of these members. He argued that no more delegated legislation was required since the law already set the standards.
He said also that the petitioner filed for the Member Hydropower post after the positions were posted in September 2020. Though ranking first on the merit list, the hiring procedure stayed unfinished for a number of reasons. New policies with changed criteria were adopted in 2024, which finally caused the petitioner to be excluded from the appointment.
He went on to add that the petitioner had filed for a post of member hydropower in September 2020, so the posts were posted. Although he was at the top of the merit list, the process was not finished for one reason or another; so, in 2024 new regulations were adopted and new criteria were recommended, so denying the petitioner of the appointment.
