ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has declared the suspension of outgoing Accountant General of Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) Tahir Mehmood illegal and held that the proceedings of an inquiry against him were “tainted with mala fide (intentions)”.
Mr Mehmood was suspended on Dec 18 for three months after he had sent three references against the finance secretary to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and asked the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) not to release money to the government through the Federal Consolidated Fund (FCF). Mr Mehmood retired on April 5 after attaining the age of superannuation. Although he cannot be reinstated because of the court order, he believes that it has restored his reputation and now he can gracefully go home after 34 years of service.
Earlier on Jan 13, 2014, the IHC declared the sacking of National Database and Registration Authority chief Mohammad Tariq Malik illegal. The government had cancelled his service contract in December last year. Like Mr Mehmood, Mr Malik also could not benefit from the IHC order because he had resigned from the office a few days before the announcement of the judgment.
Initially on Dec 20, Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi of the IHC struck down the order of suspension of AGPR Mehmood and reinstated him. But the government sent him on forced leave and the court issued a stay order against the move.
In February, the establishment division initiated an inquiry against him on disciplinary grounds and after sidelining him assigned his job to another official.
According to the petition filed by Mr Mehmood, the government was not happy with him because he had advised the SBP governor not to issue direct advance to the government from the FCF and sent references against Finance Secretary Waqar Masood to NAB.
The references pertained to release of Rs317 billion to oil marketing companies in a shady manner, payment of billions of rupees to a private contractor, M/s AIRRS, for building a hospital and hostel in Afghanistan in violation of the procurement rules and release of billions of rupees for procurement of polio vaccines through Unicef.
The government, through its counsel Hafiz S. A. Rehman, told the court that the AGPR had been suspended for three months to ensure a fair and transparent inquiry into his alleged wrongdoings.
The court observed that the inquiry officer had not issued any warning to Mr Mehmood before initiating proceedings and set aside the inquiry proceedings by declaring them illegal.
However, Justice Qureshi suggested to the government that if it wanted to launch a fresh inquiry against Mr Mehmood it should appoint a new inquiry officer.