FO officials petition IHC against postings, transfer

ISLAMABAD: Special Secretary Foreign Office and two other senior officers have petitioned the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the recent postings and transfer of officers at different foreign missions.

The writ petition has been filed under Article 199 of the Constitution terming the posting orders violative of the policy framed in 2015 after thorough deliberation.

Special Secretary Foreign Office and grade-22 officer of the Foreign Service Zahid Nasarullah and two other senior officers Fayaz Lodhy and Shahid Iqbal of the same office filed the petition. The petitioners recalled that there was a policy for posting in Afghanistan due to some peculiar circumstances.

One of the main petitioners, Zahid Nasarullah, has just returned from Afghanistan where he served as an outstanding ambassador for about four years and subsequently assumed the office of Special Secretary at the headquarters. The petitioners submitted that some of the officers had made representations against these violations of the Policy of 2015 to the foreign secretary who had also been made respondent in the petition but to no avail.

The copies of the representations have also been attached with the main petition.

The petition has been submitted through Zafarullah Khan Advocate, Umer Sajjad Chaven and Shahmeer Shahid Advocates.

The petition submits that the said posting orders issued by the foreign secretary were discriminatory, arbitrary in nature and issued in a whimsical manner just to favor some blue-eyed officers.

The petitioners argued that they had no other adequate and efficacious remedy except to seek court remedy.