Dawn leaks: Former PIO challenges his suspension in high court

ISLAMABAD: Rao Tehseen Ali, former principal information officer (PIO) of the Press Information Department, have gone to the Islamabad High Court challenging his removal from the post in the wake of the Dawn leaks inquiry recommendations, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

Prime minister’s former special assistant on foreign affairs Tariq Fatemi and Tehseen Ali were dismissed from their posts following the recommendations of an inquiry committee that probed the leak of information about a high-profile meeting between the civilian and military leaders in Karachi-based English newspaper.

Former Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed was the first who bore the brunt of the fallout of the news report as the PML-N government withdrew his portfolio on Oct 29.

Tehseen petitioned the high court challenging the allegations leveled against him in the inquiry report and his subsequent suspension from the post.

In the petition, he submitted that his reputation was tarnished as a result of the committee’s report holding him responsible for leaking the important information.

He lamented that he hadn’t received a copy of the report, yet he was removed from the post without  him knowing his role in the leak. It was his right to get a copy of the report, he argued.

Citing federal government through the secretary information, the principal secretary to the PM and others as official respondents, Tehseen pleaded to the court to issue directives to the concerned authorities to provide him a copy of the inquiry report. The court was further pleaded to declare his removal from the post as illegal and unconstitutional.