The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday ordered the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) to immediately reinstate the 80 officers dismissed by the power utility two years ago and pay their outstanding salaries and dues for the period.
After hearing the final arguments from both sides, the SHC single bench including Justice Muneeb Akhtar in his order stated that the KESC management has only 10 days to challenge the verdict, otherwise the court will remain intact.
In April 2010, the KESC had terminated the services of 249 permanent officers.
Senior engineer Abdul Jabbar along with other officers had filed three different lawsuits against their termination in SHC.
The applicants had also filed an urgent application for immediate relief for the payment of their salaries. They had stated that the KESC management, in violation of the privatisation agreement, had amended the officers’ rules on service policy which was arbitrary and unlawful and terminated the services of 294 KESC employees without giving any reasons.
Their counsel had stated that termination of the employees’ services was unlawful, as there was no consent of the plaintiff regarding their termination and the act of the defendant was against the law.
The high court had stayed the termination orders of the officers
The KESC management had filed an appeal against the SHC order, but it was rejected in June 2010. The Abraaj-led management then filed a petition against the orders in the Supreme Court, where a bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry disposed of the petition and converted it into an appeal, sending it back to the SHC.
Despite the high court’s order, the KESC management did not post these officers on appropriate positions and only paid salaries to them up to May 2011.
CHIEF, HOME SECRETARIES ON NOTICE: Suspending the promotion notification of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Jails Nusrat Manghan, the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday put the Sindh chief secretary, the Home secretary and Services secretary on notice.
Manghan was promoted recently by the Sindh government but his promotion was challenged by another officer – Senior Jail Superintendent Shabbir Nizamani.
In his constitutional petition filed through his lawyer Advocate Ahmed Nawaz Shaikh, Nizamani had submitted that in a selection committee meeting headed by Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, Manghan was promoted as DIG Jails and the committee paid no attention to the petitioner’s case despite being senior to Manghan.
The applicant further added that the reason quoted for his rejection was a case registered against him around two years ago, despite being exonerated by a judicial inquiry from all charges.
The court has directed the respondents to file their comments on May 10.
