Two senior judges of the judiciary have opposed seeking information from intelligence agencies for promotion of judges or bureaucrats.
Justice Sardar Ijaz Ishaq Khan of the Islamabad High Court has said in his order that a bureaucrat with a good service record cannot be stopped from being promoted solely on the basis of intelligence reports regarding his integrity.
Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, has said that the process of seeking opinion from intelligence agencies in the appointment of judges can be misused.
Justice Ijaz Ishaq Khan gave this order on the petition of Tahir Hassan, a Grade 20 officer of the Information Group.
In August 2023, the Central Selection Board (CSB) meeting, which promotes bureaucrats from Grade 19 to 21, met and among the officers whose promotion was considered in that meeting was Tahir Hassan, who was to be promoted to Grade 21.
However, despite his excellent service record, he was denied promotion because intelligence agency reports had raised questions about his ‘reputation and integrity’.
The court noted that intelligence reports were presented to the board for the first time during this meeting, which neither the board members nor the petitioner had ever seen before.
The court said that the officer was denied promotion solely on the basis of these reports even though he had 13 very excellent and 22 very good assessments during his career from 1994 to 2022.
Justice Ijaz Ishaq Khan wrote in his order, “It is extremely surprising to create such a framework for the justice system under which the career of an officer can be jeopardized on the basis of an intelligence report.”
The court said that especially such a report was neither brought before the officer’s department nor presented to the members of the CSB before considering him for promotion.
The Islamabad High Court judge criticized the reasons for the intelligence reports and called them oxymoronic because “nothing wise has been written in these reports.”
The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) report said that the officer’s career was “satisfactory” but he was financially corrupt and involved in such activities.
However, these allegations were neither substantiated by any evidence nor further details were provided in this regard.
Other allegations in the ISI report stated that he was an officer who could not bear pressure.
The court said that the quality of these reports could not be trusted and at the very least, it could be expected that such reports should be documented with evidence and proper details of the interrogation should be provided in it.
Justice Ijaz Ishaq Khan stressed that denying Tahir Hassan an opportunity to respond to these allegations was a violation of his fundamental rights.
He also criticized the amendments made in 2022 to the Civil Servants Promotion (BPS-18 to BPS-21) Rules, 2019 (CSPR), which allowed the use of intelligence reports during promotion.
Justice Ijaz Ishaq Khan, while declaring the CSB order null and void, directed the board to consider promoting Tahir Hassan in its meeting and not to pay any attention to any intelligence report on which the petitioner was not given a proper opportunity to respond.
