' MAHMOOD AHMAD BHATTI, J.--- Muhammad Khalid Mehmood, the petitioner has filed this petition, challenging the order dated 7-3-2014 passed by Postmaster General Southern Punjab Circle, Multan, respondent No,2, whereby he was transferred from Mian Channu to Khanewal.
2. The case of the petitioner as set out in the petition is that he joined Pakistan Postal Service in 1988 in BPS-9. He was promoted to the post of Assistant Superintendent in BPS 14 in the wake of the passing of his examination held by the respondents. On 20-7-2012 he was posted in the office of respondent No,2 as Assistant Superintendent (Complaint). He was yet to settle when he was transferred from there on 28-11-2012 as Assistant Manager U.M.S. Branch, General Post Office, Multan. Only seven months thereafter, he was again transferred on 1-7-2013 to act as Assistant General Postmaster (Admn.), General Post Office, Multan. In short, respondents would keep on posting and transferring him every few Months, rendering him a wretched person. Ultimately, the petitioner himself asked the respondents to transfer him from Multan to Mian Channu, District Khanewal. He took charge there on 14-2-2014, but within a space of three weeks, he has again been transferred from there to Khanewal.
3. Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that the wife of the petitioner is serving as Principal at Government Girls Higher Secondary School near Mian Channu, and this was the primary reason which impelled the petitioner to seek his transfer from Multan to Mian Channu. According to him, this was also in accordance with the wedlock policy issued by the Government. He makes the grievance that Muhammad Arshad Butt, respondent No,5 (transferred to Mian Channu to take petitioner's place), another Assistant Superintendent posted at Khanewal Sub-Division Khanewal enjoys considerable influence and clout. He also enjoys the patronage of the local politicians.
Serious allegations have also been levelled against him in the petition, but they being outside the purview of this petition need not be noticed. He has placed reliance upon the judgments of the Supreme Court of Pakistan reported as "Zahid Akhtar v. Government of Punjab through Secretary, Local Government and Rural Development, Lahore and 2 others" (PLD 1995 SC 530) and "Syed Mahmood Akhtar Naqvi v. Federation of Pakistan and others" (PLD 2013 SC 195) to contend that the normal tenure of a servant at a station should not be less than three years, and if the postings and transfers of a person are made every few months, it would surely be the outcome of extraneous considerations, and can easily be regarded as mala fide both in fact and law.
4. Mian Tanvir Kamran Advocate, learned counsel for Muhammad Ashraf Butt, respondent No-5, opposes this petition on the ground that this petition is not maintainable. He argues that the petitioner was transferred from Multan to Mian Channu on 14-2-2014 on his own asking. Therefore, the petitioner is not to be allowed to make any capital out of this fact. As for the impugned order dated 7-3-2014, he postulates, that the same was passed in the public interest, and this order was to be passed because of administrative reasons.
5. Mr. Muhammad Javed Saeed Pirzada Assistant Advocate-General supports the impugned order.
He puts forward the argument that every department is vested with complete discretion to make postings and transfers as it pleases, and no outside agency or authority, including the Courts are to interfere with this policy of the Government. Otherwise, it would be quite difficult for the Government departments to work in independence and achieve efficiency. Again, it would also have repercussions on the morale of the Heads of Government departments, besides the erosion of discipline of the Government employees/ Autonomous Bodies/Corporations, etc.
6. I have listened to the arguments advanced by the learned counsel for the parties patiently and at length, besides going through the comments furnished by the respondents.
7. The argument advanced by the respondents' side that the transfer of the petitioner from Mian Channu to Multan was ordered in the public interest, is plainly unsound. When asked to explain the "public interest", which prompted them to order the transfer of the petitioner within three weeks of his posting at Mian Channu, they had hardly any justification and material to back up their assertion. It is truism that all sorts of transfer orders are sought to be justified in the name of "public interest", without comprehending the implications thereof. As the expression "public interest" denotes, it is the supreme interest of the public that is to be factored into at the time of passing such orders. And this public interest is to be discernible from a mere reading of the order in question. One has not to make a roving inquiry to find out "public interest". At least the authority concerned is to be inundated with complaints made by the public against the concerned official, which would oblige the head of a department to remove him from a particular post and station or there must be compelling reasons justifying such transfer orders on the administrative grounds. A situation may be visualized where a particular person with special qualifications, talents and aptitude for a specific job is required at a specified place. In that event he would have to be transferred from one place to another to tide over/overcome a complex situation. But such would be rare cases/occasions. It is time that the Government departments were sounded, not to invoke the overworked cliche of "public interest" to justify their illegal, unlawful and motivated orders passed at the behest of the influential.
8. As is obvious from the narration of facts set out in the preceding paragraphs, the petitioner is transferred from one place to another and from one post to another every few months. That a person takes some time to settle into a new job and a new place is to state the obvious. But if he is continuously uprooted, it would not only affect his efficiency and output, but would also have repercussions on his health. In the process, both the employer and the employee turn out to be the losers and the person who maneuvers the system to his advantage would have the last laugh.
9. There is no gainsaying that the petitioner was transferred from Multan to Mian Channu on 14-2- 2014 on. his own asking, but he was obliged to make such a request for the simple reason that her wife is said to be the Principal of Government Girls Higher Secondary School near Mian Channu. The respondents struggled to trivialize this issue, but it is the natural desire of a spouse to be near to his/her better half, and this is all about the wedlock policy duly recognized by the Government.
Therefore, there is no need to make fun thereof. At this stage, I would also like to attend to the argument made by the respondents to the effect that the wife of the petitioner is a Principal at Government Higher Secondary School Iqbal Nagar, which forms part of Sahiwal, and as such is not part of Mian Channu or Khanewal. Be that as it may, Iqbal Nagar is stated to be only a few miles from Mian Channu, where the petitioner was posted and from where his transfer has been ordered by the respondents.
10. Learned counsel for the petitioner has made reference to the judgments of the Supreme Court of Pakistan reported as "Zahid Akhtar v. Government of Punjab through Secretary, Local Government and Rural Development. Lahore and 2 others" (PLD 1995 SC 530) and "Syed Mahmood Akhtar Naqvi v. Federation of Pakistan and others" (PLD 2013 SC 195) to emphasize that the superior Courts have invariably viewed with disfavor the postings and transfers of public servants every B few months. There is hardly any scope to add what has already been authoritatively held by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and I respectfully follow the enunciations made in the afore-quoted judgments.
11. For what has been stated above, this petition is allowed, declaring the order dated 7-3-2014 passed by the respondents to be a case in point regarding the colourable exercise of authority and jurisdiction, lacking any sanction of law behind it, with the result that the same is struck down.
Resultantly, the petitioner shall continue to discharge his duties as Assistant Superintendent Post Office, Mian Channu, Sub-Division, Mian Channu, District Khanewal as before.
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