ISLAMABAD, Sept 16 The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) not to discriminate against a former lady tennis star and promote her to BS-20 by giving exemption from attending NIPA course.

A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan and Justice Nasirul Mulk took the decision on a suo motu action on an application of Additional Director NAB Ms Aliya Rashid.The former tennis star had complained that she was denied promotion to the next grade on the ground that she had not attended the NIPA (National Institute of Public Administration) course, whereas many officers had been promoted, though they did not meet the requirement of the course.

Aliya Rashid is a renowned tennis star who had won the World Junior championship in Sri Lanka in 1984 and brought laurels for the country in the field of sports. She also enjoyed the singular honour of participating in Wimbledon Tennis Tournament in 1985 and had been the national tennis champion from 1981 to 1986.

She joined NAB on deputation in BS-18 in June 2003 and was later promoted in BS-19. Twelve army officers were also inducted in the NAB after her induction in 2003 in BS-18 as well as 19. Due to her outstanding service record she was nominated to attend NIPA course four times but each time she regretted from attending the course because being a single parent of a teenaged daughter, she can not leave her alone for six months.

In her application to the chief justice, she had claimed to have been discriminated against since six of her junior officers namely Col (retd) Khurshid Alam, Group Capt (retd) Shamsher Ali, Lt Col (retd) Shahzad Anwar Bhatti, Group Capt (retd) Muhammad Naeem Ashraf, Col (retd) Subah Sadiq Malik and Lt Col (retd) Sirajul Naeem were promoted to BS-20 without completing the required length of service that too without NIPA course.

Senior Advocate Hafiz S A Rehman assisted the apex court as an amicus curaie (friend of the court).