PHC declares NTC chairman’s appointment void

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday declared the appointment of chairman of National Tariff Commission (NTC) as void and against the law.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Muhammad Younas Thaheem allowed the writ petition filed against the appointment of Qasim M Niaz as chairman of NTC by Musa Raza, the sole proprietor of Shaheen Steel Service.
The court in a short order stated that the writ petition was allowed only to the extent of declaring appointment of chairman NTC illegal and void.
However, the court did not declare appointment of members of the NTC including Rubina Athar, Abdul Khaliq and Tippu Sultan as void even though that too was challenged by the petitioner.
During the course of arguments, the petitioner’s lawyer Babar Khan Yousafzai submitted that the NTC chairman didn’t meet the qualification requirement provided under Section 5(2) (a) of the National Traffic Commission Act.
He said the respondent only possessed a master’s degree in Defence and Strategic Studies instead of international trade laws, business and commercial laws, economics, accountancy, tariffs and trade, commerce and trade, or trade-related subject.
The petitioner’ counsel pointed out before the bench that the provisions of Section 5(2) (a) of the NTC Act were mandatory. He said the qualification required that a person appointed to the NTC must at least have Master’s degree in the fields stated therein.
The lawyer submitted that the prime minster approved appointment of the NTC chairman and its members without consulting the federal ministers and termed it a blatant violation of Section 4 of the NTC Act and Article 90 of the Constitution.
He stated that recently the Supreme Court of Pakistan gave a ruling and it had been unequivocally and very clearly stipulated that wherever an act was required to be undertaken by the federal government it would be an act to be undertaken by the federal cabinet, which included the prime minister.
“Therefore, any act undertaken solely by the prime minister shall not be considered an action by the federal government as the prime minister cannot exercise the power of the federal government without the approval of the cabinet,” the lawyer quoted the Supreme Court decision in the Mustafa Impex case in 2016. The petitioner is the sole proprietor involved in the business of importing galvanised and coloured steel coils/ sheets from China and selling in Pakistan. It was submitted in the petition that the issue between the petitioner and NTC started on the basis of notice of initiation issued on August 11, 2015.
It said that the NTC imposed duties on the import of galvanised steel coils/sheets through notice of preliminary on November 43, 2016 and through notice of final determination on February 7, 2017.
It said the notices were also published on the NTC website against the petitioner and others for not paying the duties.
However, the petitioner claimed that the notices for imposition of duties were published under the order of the NTC, which has not been constituted in accordance with the provisions of the NTC Act and in violation of sections 4 and 5 of the NTC Act as both the chairman and members were not qualified to be appointed in the commission.
The counsel for the NTC and assistant attorney general defended the direct appointment of the chairman and members by the prime minister.
They stated that the NTC chairman was qualified as he did BSc Honours in economics, which was equivalent to Master’s degree.
However, the petitioner’s lawyer argued that the NTC chairman did three year programme of BSc economics, which under the HEC rules isn’t equivalent to Master’s degree as BSc four year economic programme is equivalent to Master’s degree.