PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Friday declared illegal the scrapping of a recruitment for more than 400 posts of commercial assistants and line superintendents and their readvertising by the Peshawar Electric Supply Company.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Mohammad Faheem Wali accepted a petition jointly filed by 26 of the candidates, including Waqarullah Khan and others, against a Pesco advertise-ment issued early this year to fill the posts for which the petitioners were selected in 2022.

It pronounced a short order, noting that the detailed judgement will be released later.

The petitioners had requested the court to declare illegal the impugned decision cancelling the previous selection process for the posts of commercial assistants (BPS-15) and line superintendent (BPS-14) as well as the issuance of impugned advertisement to carry out fresh recruitment for such posts.

Advocate Khaled Rahman appeared for the petitioner and said under a recruitment drive, the respondents had advertised several posts, including 272 of commercial assistants and 135 of lien superintendents, along with many of audit assistants, junior store keeper, lab assistants, senior clerks, juniorclerks and meter readers.

He said the petitioners, being eligible in all respects, applied for the post of commercial assistants (CAs) and LS-H.

The lawyer said scrutiny of records was concluded wherein the petitioners were declared eligible for the said posts.

He said that respondents later started the recruitment process and called petitioners who sat the written examination conducted by the University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar as part of the selection process.

The counsel said Pesco later circulated the provisional lists ofthe successfulcandidates.

He said that through an office memorandum issued on May 28, 2022, by the ministry of energy, the recruitment process in all power distribution companies was abruptly frozen citing finan-cial constraints.

The lawyer added that the decision was communicated without providing any legal justification or affording affected candidates an opportunity of being heard.

He said that through a letter on Sept 23, 2022, the respondents partially unfroze the recruitment process for BPS-17 posts only and postponed the exercise for the remaining posts, including those of petitioners, promising that separate instructions would be issued later on.

The counsel said due to severe staff shortage, Pesco, through a letter on July 23, 2024, approached the energy ministry to request early completion of the pending process, particularly for lower cadre posts.

He added that the ministry allowed Discos to make recruit-ment for the posts of LS-II and CAs.

Mr Rahman said instead of resuming the selection process, the respondents took the impugned decision to scrap the selection process and start fresh recruitment. There followed the re-advertisement of those 272 posts of CAs and 134 of LS-II.

He argued that once a recruitment process had substantially progressed as candidates had participated in the written test, the petitioners acquired a vested right under the `doctrine of legitimate expectancy` that the process should be concluded on merit.

The lawyer insisted that the cancellation of the process without legal justification was a colorable exercise of power, politically motivated rendering the act void and ultra vires to the Constitution.