RAHIB KHAN BULEDI vs SECRETARY ENERGY POWER DIVISION, GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN ISLAMABAD Recruitment

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RAHIB KHAN BULEDI VS SECRETARY ENERGY POWER DIVISION, GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN ISLAMABAD Recruitment---appointment process not conducted through a third party head-hunting firm as per the guidelines, plea of---Scope---Department to make appointments on its own without involvement of head-hunting firm---Mandate---Respondent No.4 (QESCO) initially published an advertisement inviting applications for various C-Level positions---The advertisement specified minimum qualifications and 15 years of experience in the Energy and Power sector---However, most applicants did not meet the experience criteria---The HR Committee of QESCO's Board of Directors (BoD) still conducted interviews allegedly contrary to the Finance Division, Central Monitoring Unit guidelines---The matter was later placed before the 219th BoD meeting where it was observed that none of the candidates fulfilled the experience requirement except for the 'chief technical advisor' post---The BoD therefore resolved to re-advertise the C-Level positions---Subsequently, Respondent No.4 issued a new advertisement but the petitioner maintained that the same guidelines and experience conditions were once again ignored and that the process was not outsourced to a head-hunting firm, as directed in the guidelines---Core issue for determination was as to "Whether the re-advertisement for the appointment of C-Level positions in QESCO was in violation of the Finance Division's guidelines and the BoD's 219th meeting decision by not outsourcing the recruitment process to a head-hunting firm as required under the State-Owned Enterprises (C-Level appointments) Guidelines, 2024---Held: Bare reading of sub-clause (iv) of step 2 of the Guidelines of 2024 made it clear that the guidelines were directory in nature which might be deviated by the BoD, obviously for justifiable reasons and compelling circumstances, but not otherwise---Clearly the BoD QESCO in its 219th meeting neither made any direction for carrying out the appointment process through a head-hunting firm nor did it violate the guidelines of 2024 whereafter in compliance thereof respondent No.4 re-advertised the C-Level positions in accordance with approval accorded by BoD QESCO---It was not mandatory for a state-owned enterprise to hire a third party head-hunting firm for appointment of C-Level positions as the BoD of QESCO itself had the mandate to make appointments as per their decision---Moreover, petitioner failed to establish any malice on part of the BoD while making decision for making appointment on their own---Even otherwise the appointments were not being made in a clandestine manner but through open merit by inviting applications countrywide which was a sign of healthy competition and transparency while graduating the scale of participation, culminating into merit based appointments---admittedly, BoD was the top governing body in the company responsible for supervising, management, guiding corporate strategy, and ensuring accountability and compliance, which exercised its powers in coordination with the government policies---Moreover, it was the prerogative of the employer to relax the requisite qualification and other terms which were otherwise based on business strategy, HR policies and progression plans---Constitutional petition being devoid of merits was dismissed, in circumstances.

RAHIB KHAN BULEDI vs SECRETARY ENERGY POWER DIVISION, GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN ISLAMABAD Recruitment — 2025 PLC(CS) 1602 QUETTA-HIGH-COURT-BALOCHISTAN

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