Through the instant writ petition the petitioner, Waqas Ahmed Langah, who is serving as the Secretary (Management / Human Resource - Inland Revenue) in the Federal Board of Revenue, seeks a declaration to the effect that the summary submitted to the Prime Minister, which led to the selection of respondent No.4 as Community Welfare Attache ("CWA") is illegal and unlawful.
Furthermore, the petitioner seeks a direction for a new summary to be submitted to the Prime Minister showing him as one of the candidates to be appointed as CWA in Pakistan's Diplomatic Missions abroad.
2. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that earlier the petitioner was selected for posting as CWA in the Embassy of Pakistan in Baghdad vide letter dated 12.05.2016 issued by the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development ("Ministry of OP&HRD") for a period of three years; that the said period was extended from time to time and lastly up to 28.02.2021; that subsequently, on 17.11.2023, respondent No.1 advertised 19 vacant posts of CWA in Pakistan's Missions abroad; that pursuant to the said advertisement, the petitioner appeared in the competitive process and secured 70.65 marks in the written test and stood at 4th position on the merit list out of total 139 candidates; that vide letter dated 15.04.2024, the petitioner was called upon to appear in the interview; that in the interview conducted by the Special Selection Board, the petitioner secured 3rd position on the merit list and thus developed legitimate expectation to be selected for appointment as CWA in Pakistan's Missions abroad; that the petitioner came to know as to the submission of the misleading summary to the Prime Minister alleging therein that the petitioner had not completed three years of service in the intervening period before the closing date mentioned in the advertisement; that to the utter surprise of the petitioner, respondent No.4, who was at Sr.No.21 of the merit list, was selected for posting as CWA in the Embassy of Pakistan, Bahrain and an offer letter was issued to him on 09.08.2024; and that the summary moved to the Prime Minister with respect to the petitioner is totally misleading and based on misrepresentation. Learned counsel for the petitioner prayed for the writ petition to be allowed in terms of the relief sought therein.
3. On the other hand, learned Deputy Attorney-General assisted by Dr. Asmat Nawaz, Senior Joint Secretary, Ministry of OP&HRD, submitted that Ministry of OP&HRD did not mention anything misleading in the summary dated 08.06.2024 submitted to the Prime Minister; that in fact in the said summary, a waiver had been sought so that the petitioner is posted as CWA despite the fact that his service in Pakistan during the period between the completion of his first tenure of posting abroad and the cut-off date of 04.12.2023 was less than the qualifying period of three years; that since the petitioner had not fulfilled the eligibility condition set out in paragraph 5(v) of the Ministry of OP&HRD's Policy dated 03.09.2020, he had no right to seek a direction for being posted as CWA in Pakistan's Diplomatic Missions abroad. Learned Deputy Attorney General prayed for the writ petition to be dismissed.
4. I have heard the contentions of the learned counsel for the petitioner as well as the learned Deputy Attorney-General and perused the record with their able assistance.
5. The record shows that on 12.05.2016, the petitioner was posted as CWA in Pakistan's Diplomatic Mission in Baghdad (Iraq) for a period of three years. Even though the conditions on which the petitioner was so posted had specified that the said tenure of three years was not extendable, the Ministry of OP&HRD extended the said tenure on four different occasions up to 28.02.2021. The notifications through which such extensions were granted are annexed along with the writ petition.
After the petitioner returned to Pakistan, he served in the FBR.
6. The Ministry of OP&HRD published an advertisement inviting applications from government officers working in BS-18 to BS-19 for selection as CWAs in various Diplomatic Missions of Pakistan.
As per the said advertisement, the deadline for the submission of applications was 04.12.2023.
Interested candidates fulfilling the eligibility criteria were required to submit their applications by the said deadline. The petitioner was one of the candidates who applied within the deadline and in the written test conducted the IBA Testing Service Department secured 70.75 marks. Vide letter dated 15.04.2024, the petitioner was required by the Ministry of OP&HRD to appear before the Special Selection Board for an interview on 17.04.2024. Vide letter dated 29.01.2024, the Ministry of OP&HRD requested the FBR to provide information / documents with respect to the officers in FBR who had cleared the written test and interview. The petitioner was one such officer. The information sought by the said Ministry also included a certificate to the effect that the officer had not availed two tenures of foreign posting in his entire service and that the intervening period for the officer applying for the second tenure of foreign posting was not less than three years as on 04.12.2023 (i.e. the deadline for the submission of the applications). Vide Office Memorandum ("OM") dated 07.02.2024, FBR informed the Ministry of OP&HRD that the officers in the list attached to the said OM had not availed two tenures of foreign posting in their entire service and that the intervening period for the officers applying for the second tenure of foreign posting was not less than three years on 04.12.2023. The petitioner's name was included in the list attached with the said OM but about him it was stated that he had completed his three-year tenure of foreign posting on 30.07.2019 but the Prime Minister had extended the duration of his foreign posting from time to time. The petitioner's grievance with competitive process arose when one of his colleagues was informed by the Ministry of OP&HRD vide letter dated 09.08.2024 that his colleague had been selected for being posted as CWA in the Embassy of Pakistan at Bahrain. Since the petitioner had not received any such letter, he filed the instant petition before this Court. After this Court issued notices to the respondents, documents were brought on record including a summary dated 08.06.2024 submitted by the Ministry of OP&HRD to the Prime Minister stating inter alia that although the requisite intervening period of three years between the end of the tenure of the earlier foreign posting and the date of the advertisement (i.e. 04.12.2023) with respect to the petitioner was short by two months and twenty seven days but it was proposed that waiver may be accorded as by the time the said summary was submitted more than three years had lapsed after the end of the petitioner's tenure of his last foreign posting. It is an admitted position that the waiver sought had not been granted by the Prime Minister. Despite this, the Ministry of OP&HRD's letters dated 28.06.2024 and 12.07.2024 to the Prime Minister's Secretariat show the petitioner as having been allocated the station of Doha-I. The learned Deputy Attorney-General submitted that since the petitioner did not fulfill the eligibility condition set out in the Ministry of OP&HRD's Policy dated 03.09.2020.
7. It is not disputed that the last extension in the petitioner's tenure as CWA in Baghdad (Iraq) through notification dated 19.10.2020 was up to 28.02.2021. The date on which the petitioner's tenure of the said posting ended would be until he served in the position of CWA in Baghdad (Iraq) i.e. 28.02.2021 and not the date when his initial tenure of three years came to an end i.e. 30.07.2019. The intervening period after the end of the petitioner's tenure of his last foreign posting (i.e. 28.02.2021) and the deadline mentioned in the advertisement (i.e. 04.12.2023) is short of three years by two months and twenty seven days.
8. The advertisement in response to which the petitioner had applied for participation in the competitive process clearly stated that the criteria / policy applicable for the selection would be the one available on web page http://ophrd.gov.pk/. Paragraph 5(v) of the said policy issued by the Ministry of OP&HRD on 03.09.2020 clearly provides as a condition of eligibility that "officers who are applying for the second tenure of foreign posting in their entire service with less than three years of intervening period between their first foreign posting and the second foreign posting as on the closing date for submission of applications." The petitioner's eligibility was to be judged in accordance with the policy dated 03.09.2020 reference to which was made in the advertisement issued by the Ministry of OP&HRD and not the general policy issued by the Establishment Division on 21.10.2020. The said policy dated 03.09.2020 is specifically for the appointment and posting of CWAs in Pakistan's Diplomatic Missions abroad. At no material stage had the petitioner questioned the advertisement which had stated that the selection was to be in accordance with the policy dated 03.09.2020.
9. Since the petitioner did not fulfill the eligibility criteria set out in paragraph 5(v) of the said policy dated 03.09.2020, as the intervening period between the end of his last tenure of foreign posting and the deadline of 04.12.2023 mentioned in the advertisement issued by the Ministry of OP&HRD was not three years or more, the decision taken by the respondents not to select him for posting as CWA in Pakistan's Diplomatic Mission abroad does not suffer from any legal infirmity.
Consequently, the instant writ petition is dismissed.