ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the government to take immediate steps for the removal of all civil servants, including FIA Director General Waseem Ahmed, who retired after attaining the age of superannuation but were re-employed on permanent posts in violation of Section 14 of the Civil Servant Act 1973, asking the government to submit a progress report.
A four-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed and Justice Ghulam Rabbani, also hinted that it would pass a judicial order if its orders for removal of all contractual officers were not implemented. The court directed a three-member committee formed on the prime minister’s directives in response to the SC’s observations to review all contractual appointments.
Hearing a suo motu case against corruption and mismanagement in the Haj affairs, the chief justice noted that it appeared as if the government was not taking due interest in the implementation of the court’s orders for removal of contractual employees. “We are continuously showing judicial restraint. The government should be informed that it should not test our patience,” the chief justice noted, adding that attempts should not be made to push the court to the wall.
To a list of contractual employees currently working against the cadre posts in the Secretariat and all its attached departments submitted by Establishment Division Secretary Abdur Rauf Chaudhry, the court asked him to furnish a statement testifying that except these people no other employee had been accepted as working on contracts against the cadre post.
The Establishment secretary submitted the statement with the Registrar’s Office on Wednesday. The court also directed the Establishment secretary to continue his task and also reexamine the case of the FIA director general. The court observed, “We are of the opinion that the government should itself take a decision with respect to such employees who prima facie are holding these posts in violation of Article 9 of the constitution and Section 14 of the Civil Servants Act 1973 as well as the policy of the government and result shall be intimated on April 8.”
Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, counsel for the federal government, requested the court to grant a reasonable time to the committee to proceed with and conclude its task with procedural propriety. The court accepted his request and adjourned hearing until April 8. In his preliminary objections on the proceedings of contractual officers’ case, Pirzada contended that the proceedings in the case did not pertain to enforcement of any fundamental right in general or Article 9 in particular, thus these proceedings were beyond the scope of Article 184(3) of the constitution, under which the petition was filed.
He said the rights of serving government officials were available to them in individual capacity and under the provisions of Civil Servants laws and rules, which gave them remedies against injustice in each individual case. He also requested the court to terminate the proceedings in the case of reemployment of superannuated officers on contractual basis, but the court turned down his request.
He said that there was no such right, much less a fundamental right, available to any government servant to demand or ask for promotion, adding that the only entitlement available to such individual was to be “considered” for promotion.
