SC reinstates 16,000 sacked employees on humanitarian grounds

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday reinstated 16,000 sacked employees on humanitarian grounds, ARY News reported on Friday.

The verdict was reserved by the SC after listening to the arguments in the case, yesterday. The reserved verdict was announced by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, the head of the five-member larger bench comprising Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, Justice Qazi Mohammad Amin and Justice Aminuddin Khan.

The review petitions were binned by the Supreme Court with a ratio of four to one. Justice Mansoor Ali Shah of the Supreme Court disagreed with the decision.

Justice Bandial read out the decision in the Supreme Court, which said that there is a sanctity of the constitution which we have a responsibility to protect, no decision can be given that is against the constitution and the law.

Justice Umar Ata Bandial said that the issue of employees is a matter of human sympathy. The ruling said that no disqualified person can be declared unconstitutionally eligible for government service.

It has been decided by the apex court that employees serving in BS-1 to BS-7 will be reinstated to their original positions while BS-08 to BS-17 employees will have to go through a commissioned test in order to maintain the transparency of government organizations.

It is to be noted that the petitions for review were also filed by the federation besides the employees. This is the only case in history in which neither party was against.

In the previous hearing, the SC had deferred the verdict in a review petition filed in sacked employees case after receiving the recommendations from the federal government.

The attorney general had apprised the top court that he submitted the recommendations after holding consultations with Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Decision

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Mushir Alam on August 17 declared the Sacked Employees (Reinstatement) Act, 2010 as unconstitutional after it was enacted for reinstating the employees who were appointed from Nov 1, 1993, till Nov 30, 1996, and was sacked by the then government from Nov 1, 1996, till Oct 12, 1999.