Lahore HC throws out petition of sacked Major General seeking reinstatement

The Lahore High Court's (LHC) Rawalpindi bench on Thursday dismissed a petition of sacked Major General Manzoor Ahmed seeking his reinstatement.

Dismissing the petition, Justice Asim Hafeez of the LHC, while citing Article 199 (3) of the Constitution stated, "An order shall not be made... in relation to a person who is a member of the Armed Forces of Pakistan... in respect of his terms and conditions of service", reported Dawn.

According to the petitioner, he was sacked for not accepting 'forced' retirement. Manzoor Ahmed was dismissed from service on March 9, 2021.

According to the petition, the former Major General was initially offered premature retirement but was dismissed from service after he filed a representation before the federal government against 'forced' retirement, reported Dawn.

In the representation, he "highlighted the major shortcoming in the promotional system starting from the rank of major general to Lieutenant General such as lack of demographic diversity and its effect on the institution".

The petition said, "instead of giving due consideration to the petitioner's proposals and according to him a priority for honorary regular promotion to the next rank, as the petitioner had six months experience of performing duties on a slot tenable by a three-star general, it infuriated the officers at the helm of affairs to such an extent that they orchestrated an unlawful dismissal of the petitioner from service," reported Dawn.

The petition said that Ahmed was commissioned in Pakistan Army in 1985 and rose to the rank of Major General (BS-21). During the entire tenure of his service, not an iota of adverse record surfaced at any level against him.

He also served as acting inspector general of arms which is a post of Lieutenant General. He received a retirement order on June 29, 2020, from the Military Secretary stating that the federal government had approved his retirement while indicating it a "normal retirement on completion of service limit".

However, after Ahmed challenged the retirement order and filed a representation before the President, his retirement order was recalled and the authorities dismissed him from service, reported Dawn.

The petition said: "The dismissal order of March 9, 2021, is preposterous and unreasonable since the authorities have to establish the commission of some offence of grave nature, disciplinary breach, disclosure of official secrets... Moreover, the inquiry proceedings were never held nor any official order from the same was passed which is sufficient to establish that departmental authorities transgressed their limits."

( With inputs from ANI )