F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar on Tuesday imposed a fine of Rs50,000 on Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Addit-ional Inspector General (A-IG) and Rs25,000 fine on the Punjab government for interfering in a Lahore High Court (LHC) order to recruit wom-en on open merit and adopting discriminatory policies against women.
The fine came during the hearing of an appeal filed by CTD Punjab against an LHC decision in which the LHC had ordered CTD Punjab to appoint women on open merit instead of selection based on a quota system. The CJP turned down the appeal, saying that women have the right to apply thr-ough an open-merit system. “[The court] will not allow discrimination against women,” the CJP warned.
Last year, the LHC had ordered CTD Punjab to appoint women on open merit instead of selection based on a quota system.
The order was passed on a petition filed by 200 women who accused Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Punjab of misleading candidates by failing to specify th-at female candidates will be selected through a quota system.
In their petition, the female candidates said that the CTD Punjab had advertised 1,500 posts of corporals in 2013.
At the time, no special quota was allocated for women as per the advertisement and all the petitioners applied for the posts on open merit were selected.
