MUHAMMAD NAEEM ANW AR, J. Through this petition under Article 199 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, the petitioner seeks the following player: - "It is, therefore, most humbly prayed that on acceptance of this Writ Petition, this Hon'ble Court may be please to direct the respondent to appoint the petitioner on the post of P .S.T in her constituency .
It is, further prayed before this Hon'ble Court that for the interest of justice any other remedy deems fit and appropriate in the circumstance of the case may also be granted in favour of petitioner ."
2. Facts leading to the institution of this petition, as per its contents, are that the petitioner 's father was the resident of Shabqadar , Mohallah Ocha Wala, District Charsadda, who has, later on, migrated to Dub Naguman Peshawar and by now they are permanent resident of District Peshawar . With this background, pursuant to the advertisement of Respondent No 3, whereby application s for the post of P.S.T from the permanent residents, as per domicile and CNIC of Peshawar , were invited, the petitioner being qualified and resident of Peshawar had applied for the vacant post in different schools as GGPS, Bunyadi, GGPS, Esa Khel Ahmad, GGPS Ghari Charag Shah and GGPS Ghari Karim Dad, as all the schools are within the constituency where she resides. She stood at serial No 4 of the merit list issued after NTS and interview , however , the respondents are adamant to appoint her on the plea of her being the resident of District Charsadda, hence, this petition.
3. In response to the notice, the responde nts have furnished parawise comments and opposed the issuance of writ on many legal and factual objections.
4. After institution of this petition, through civil miscellaneous No 729-Pnof 2019, the petitioner placed on file copy of her CNIC, copy of District Cadre variou s posts (female) at District Peshawar and copy of the Judgment rendered in Writ Petition No. 3253-P of 2016, dated 16-11-2016, of this Court. During the course of arguments, learned counsel for the petitioner mainly relied of the judgment of this court (supra) and contended that though father of petitioner was the resident of District Charsadda but, later on, migrated to Peshawar and since then settled there permanently . He by referring sui gas bill of meter No. GN27372706 and electricity bill, issued in the name of Inayat ullah (father of petitioner) installed at Dab Naguman, Peshawar , submitted that in similar circumstances the court issued writ by directing the respondents to consider the applicants for the post of PST at their respective Union Councils.
5. As against that, learned AAG while producing copy of judgment of the Supreme Court in Criminal Appeal No 1-P of 2019 and civil petitions No 6-P, 7-P, 8-P etc, dated 08-10-2019 contended that the findings of this court in W.P.
No. 3253-P of 2016, dated16-1 1-2016 have been set aside. Next, he contended that the appointments against the vacant post of PST are to be made in accordance with Section 3 of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Appointment, Deputation, Posting and Transfer of Teach ers, lecturers, instructors and Doctors Regulatory Act of 2011, and posts are to be filled from the candidates belonging to the union Councils of their permanent residents mentioned in CNIC and Domicile, as such, the petitioner being permanent resident of Charsadda is not entitled to be appointed in District Peshawar .
6. We have heard learned counsel for petitioner and AAG for respondents and with their valuable assistances perused the record.
7. It appears that in similar circumstances, when the posts of PST were advertised by the respondents and the disputes with respect to permanent address mentioned in CNIC and the address mentioned in domicile, came up before this court in different writ petitions, which were decided through consolidated judgment in writ petition No. 3253-P of 2016, dated 16-21 1-2016, allowed the same with the direction to the respondents to consider the then petitioners for their appointments against the posts of PST at their respective Union Councils. However , the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Criminal Appeal No.1- P of 2019, Civil Petitions No. 6-P, 7-P, 8-P, 54-P etc. Dated 08-10-2019, has held that:- "We have gone through the report submitted by the Inquiry Committee deputed to get the domiciles of the respondents verified. We note that accord ing to the report of the said committee the domiciles did not appear to be genuine because they had been prepared after the closing date for applications for the advertised post of Primary School Teachers and in many cases the addresses of the relevant persons were not those of the above mentioned Union Councils. The said Committee had only verified from the office of Deputy Commissioner that the domicile certificates had in fact been issued from the office and it had not been ascertained by the said committee as to whether the said domiciles had been issued on the basis of correct information or not. Be that as it may, in majority of the present cases the High Court had issued direction requiring the appellants /petitioners to consider the matter of appointment of the respondents as Primary School Teachers and in some of the present matters a direction has been issued to appoint the respondents as Primary School Teachers. It has been brought to our notice that according to section 3 of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (appointment, Deputation, Posting and Transfer of teachers, lecturers, instructors and Doctors) Regulatory Act of 2011. "The vacancy of Primary School Teacher shall be filled in from the candidates belonging to the Union Council of their permanent residence mentioned in their Computerized National Identity Card and Domicile ...." The said statutory provision provisions insists upon consideration of the permanent residence of a candidate of the basis of his Computerized National Identity Card as well as his domicile and thus, any direction issued by the High Court regarding the appointment or consideration of the respondents on the sole basis of Domicile Certificate has been found by us to be militating against the express statutory provision mentioned above. In these circumstances we are constrained to observe that the impugned orders/judgments passed by the High Court in the present matter had been passed and issued while departing from the above-mentioned statutory requirements. In this view of the matter this appeal and all these petitions are disposed of with a clarification that while considering the matter of appointment of the private respondents the appellant /petitioner shall adhere to the above-mentioned statutory requirements and shall dispose of all the matters in accordance with law. With these observations and clarification this appeal and these petitions are disposed of."
It is pertinent to mention here that as per the dicta of the Hon'ble Supreme Court and the larger Bench of this Court in its Judgment rendered in W .P. No 4347-P of 2017, dated 24.02.2020, has held that:- "Since, at the time of closing date of application, the permanent address of the petitioner in her CNIC was not falling within the limits of Union Council Toda Khazana, therefore, in view of the judgments (supra), she has rightly been refused appointment by the respondents against the post of PST. Deriving guidance from the judgment (ibid), this writ petition is hereby dismissed."
8. As we have seen, the closing date of application in the instant matter was 20-02-2017, whereas the date of issuance of CNIC to the petitioner was 20-12-2012, wherein her permanent address was shown as "Post office Shabqadar , Mohallah Ocha Wala, District Charsadda" and the criterion for the appointment of the PST (Primary School Teacher) has been provided in section 3 of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (appoin tment, Deputation, Posting and Transfer of Teachers, Lecturers, Instructors and Doctors) Regulatory Act of 201 1, which reads as, "3. Appointment, posting and transfer of primary school teachers.--- (1) The vacancy of primary school teacher shall be filled in from the candidates belonging to the Union Council of their permanent residence mentioned in their Computerized National Identity Card and domicile, on merit and if no eligible candidate in that Union Council is available where the school is situate, such appointment shall be made on merit from amongst eligible candidates belonging to the adjacent Union Councils: Provided that on availability of a vacancy , a primary school teacher , appointed from adjacent Union Council, as referred to in this sub-section shall be transferred against a vacant post in a school of the Union Council of his residence within a period of fifteen days. (2) Upon marriage, the primary school teacher on request may be transferred to the school in the Union Council, where his spouse, ordinarily resides, subject to the availability of vacancy .
(3) The primary school teacher shall be transferred to other school within the Union Council on completion of tenure as may be prescribed subject to the policy of rationalization for maintaining certain student teacher 's ratio, if any.
(4) Government shall, within a period not exceeding one year of the commencement of this Act, make arrangement for posting of all the primary school teachers appointed prior to coming into force of this Act, to the schools of their respective Union Councils or adjacent Union Councils, as the case may be."
9. Admittedly , the petitioner has filed this petition on the ground of shifting of her permanent abode from Charsadda to Dab Naguman, Peshawar , coupled with the fact that Domicile Certificate issued to him on 26-07-2007, contains her permanent Address as Dab Naguma n, Peshawar , however , interesting aspect of the case is that in the year, 2007, the petitioner got her SSC from the Board Of Intermediate and Secondary Education Peshawar , in the Session 2007 (Annual), when she remain ed the student of Al-Amin Model School Shabqadar Fort Charsadda .
Likewise, CNIC was issued to her on 20-12-2012, wherein her permanent address was mentioned as that of Charsadda, thereafter , till now she had never applied for change of her permanent address to NADRA authorities for issuance of CNIC with correct permanent address as that of Peshawar , which could easily be done by applying to the concerned authority under Rule 13 of National Database and Registration Authority (National Identity Card)
Rules, 2002. Another debatable angle of the matter in hand is the refusal of petitio ner from the appointment on the plea of her being the resident of "out District" is based on the legislative provision of section 3 of the ibid Act of 2011, the legality whereof were never remained in question either in this petition or in the earlier ones decided by this court, thus, the respondents, in strict compliance acted within the parameters of the Act (ibid), which is also the requirement of the Constitution, regarding which no plea of mala fide was taken by the petitioner . It is also settled principle of law that Authority must have exercised the power in accordance with law in view of Article 4 of the Constitution which prescribed duty on each and every public functionary to act in accordance with law and not in derogation of law, as Article 5(2) of the Constitution has mandated that obedience to the Constitution and law is the inviolable obligation of every citizen wherever he may be and for every other person for the time being within Pakistan. To enjoy the protection of law and to be treated in accordance with law is the inalienable right of every citizen, wherever he may be, as enshrined by Article 4 of the Constitution. Any citizen of Pakistan can change the place of residence and claim protection of law as provided either in constitution or any other law but subject to limitation as provided therein.
10. Evidently , the prerequisite for submis sion of application for the post of PST was that the candidate must be permanent resident of District Peshawar as per Domicile and National Identity Card otherwise application shall not be considered, thus, the petitioner and others being very much aware of this condition has applied for the subject post. The said stipulation was in consonance with section 3 of the Act of 2011 (ibid), on the touchstone of which the suitability , fitness and eligibility was deter mined. Learned counsel for petitioner could not augment his contentions through convincing, logical and rational justification.
11. For the reasons stated above, the instant petition is hereby dismissed being without substance, with no order as to cost.