SC Admits Qasmi's Appeal Against Removal As MD PTV

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Apr, 2024) The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday issued written order pertaining to the acceptance of the review petitions and withdrawal of its judgment regarding the termination of Ata ul Haq Qasmi as Managing Director Pakistan Television (PTV).

The top court in its five page judgment said, “The factual determination of the purported loss was arbitrary and also incorrect".

Mr. Qasmi was paid just a little more than his predecessor, which, if inflation is factored in, would be justified. And, it was a material C.R.Ps.835 of 2018 etc 5 error to assume that Mr. Qasmi’s programme’s air time was lost revenue; it could also be contended that his programme contributed towards PTV’s earnings. It would not be fair to penalize someone on the basis of mere conjecture. There is no evidence to suggest that an amount of Rs.197,867,491 was paid to Mr. Qasmi or that he had caused such a loss to ptv.

With regard to the salary of one and half million rupees being paid to Mr.

Qasmi is concerned, it was just a little over what was paid to the previous MD.

In these circumstances, to seek the recovery of an arbitrarily determined loss was neither legally permissible nor factually correct. Moreover, to make liable the then Minister for Information, Minister for Finance and the Secretary to the Prime Minister with regard to half the purported loss amount, and to pay it, had no legal basis, was without precedence and was not justified, and to do so when there was nothing on record to suggest that they had financially benefited from Mr. Qasmi’s appointment nor was there any proof of nepotism on the record.

Therefore, for the foregoing reasons, these review petitions are allowed and judgment dated 8 November 2018 passed in HRC No.3654 of 2018 is hereby recalled, it concluded.

It may be mentioned here that the review petitions were filed by Ata ul Haq Qasmi, Ishaq Dar, Pervaiz Rasheed and Fawad Hassan Fawad.