IHC declares recruitments in Foreign Ministry illegal

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday declared the recruitments of 25 peons in Ministry of Foreign Affairs as null and void.

Justice Mian Gul Hassan Aurengzaib announced the judgment in a case filed by a citizen Nabeel Mustafa challenging the appointments in Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The petitioner had argued in his plea that the ministry had recruited 25 peons in April 2017 and legal formalities were ignored in the process.

He said that the recruitments were announced only for the candidates holding domiciles of federal capital but the ministry had recruited the people of Punjab, Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan. During hearing, the bench observed that rules and procedure was violated in appointments in the ministry.

After hearing the argument from both the sides at large, the court subsequently declared the recruitments as illegal and directed the ministry to withdraw all the appointments.