Peshawar High Court stops NCCIA from issuing final appointment orders to fill its posts

The Peshawar High Court has temporarily halted the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) from issuing final appointment orders to fill its vacancies, while permitting the agency to continue with the recruitment process. The court has directed the respondents, including NCCIA directors general, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) directors, and secretaries from interior, establishment, and finance divisions, to submit their comments on a petition filed by eight NCCIA employees within two weeks.

These employees, including Sub-Inspector Mukhtar Ahmad and seven other contractual workers, are seeking the court's intervention to declare the case of their regularisation, which is already pending before the competent authority, to be resolved in accordance with the law before any fresh appointments are made. The petition argues that the impugned advertisement, published on August 23, 2026, overlaps with the existing regularisation claim, making it unlawful, arbitrary, and without lawful authority.

The court has been asked to instruct the respondents to settle the petitioners' pending regularisation claims within a specific timeframe, after which any further recruitment should be carried out strictly in compliance with the law. The petitioners' counsel, Mian Mohammad Imran, stated that the initial appointments of the eight employees were contractual, but their roles evolved over time and are now considered regular posts.

The NCCIA, established in 2025 under the Prevention of Cyber Crimes Act, replaced the FIA's Cyber-Crimes Wing. The counsel emphasized that the petitioners' employment transitioned from temporary to substantive functions, and the government's issuance of the advertisement for fresh recruitment, despite the ongoing regularisation process, is contested.