ISLAMABAD – As the executive-judiciary standoff over the issue of contractual employees deepens further with the government paying no heed to Supreme Court orders for terminating such employees, National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza has referred the case of eight such NA employees to the Finance Committee of the House with a plea that “parliament may by law regulate the recruitment and the conditions of service of persons appointed to the Secretarial staff of either House”.
A source in the NA Secretariat told Pakistan Today on Sunday that the Establishment Division secretary had written a letter to the NA speaker in light of the Supreme Court orders to terminate the services of contractual employees but she, in reply, referred to Article 87 of the constitution saying the speaker or chairman could decide the rules on recruitment and conditions of service of Senate and NA Secretariat employees.
The source said further that the prime minister had formed a committee comprising the Establishment secretary and Cabinet secretary to review such cases. The Finance Committee of the Senate had recently sent home two joint secretaries of the Senate Secretariat.
The NA speaker referred the case of NA Secretary Karamt Niazi, Public Relations Director General Anjum Mughal, Secretary Speaker Talib Javed, Legislation JS Latif Qureshi, PAC JS Najma Siddiqui, Kashmir Committee Director Sultan Ahmad, PAC DS Tariq Bhatti, and Legislation AS Ikhlaq Hussain Larak to the NA Finance Committee to decide their fate.
Since the speaker differs with the Establishment secretary on the status of contractual employees appointed in the National Assembly and refused to summarily terminate their services, the lower staff of the House has stood against the speaker’s decision of making new appointments in the NA Secretariat. They got a stay order from the court against fresh appointments in BS-17, thus forcing the NA Secretariat to postpone the recruitment process.
