SC combines pleas on SSGC contract employees

Gas company has challenged SHC verdict allowing permanent status to the employees

KARACHI: The Supreme Court (SC) combined all the appeals filed by the contract employees of the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) seeking court order to grant them permanent status.

A two-member-bench comprising Justice Maqbool Baqir and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah was hearing  an appeal filed by SSGC against the verdict of the Sindh High Court, allowing petitions of the contract employees for permanent statues in the company.

Counsel for the employees, Shua-un-Nabi, argued that 179 contract employees had been hired between 1992 and 2012. The Sindh High Court passed orders on May 16, 2018, to make all the contract employees permanent in two months.

The lawyer appearing for the SSGC maintained in the plea filed against the order of SHC that the contract employees had no direct relationship with the company. He maintained that there was no law to make the employees permanent who had been hired on contract through a third party. He pleaded that the high court's orders be annulled.



Bail plea rejected

The same bench rejected the post-arrest bail pleas of the accused in the case of children's clash resulting in murder.

The court was hearing the post-arrest bail pleas of the accused, Javed Khakhrani and Mashooq Khakhrani, in the case of a children's clash that had resulted in murder. The apex court ordered the trial court to announce the verdict of this case as soon as possible. The bench remarked that the accused can again file bail pleas after the statements of at least two witnesses.

According to the police, the murder case was registered against the accused on March 17, 2018. The accused belong to Larkana.

The court also rejected the bail pleas of three accused nominated in a case related to the murder of two people in Naushero Feroze while accepting the plea of the fourth accused.

The government lawyer argued that the accused fired using rifles and pistols in Naushero Feroze on May 15, 2018. Two persons, identified as Yaseen and Mamoon Sajan, died as a result of the firing. Strong evidence against the accused was available therefore bails shouldn't be granted to them.

Counsel for the accused argued that what was the purpose of arresting the accused. It is just about recovering the weapons through physical torture. Justice Sajjad Ali Shah said "what are the other ways of interrogation available to us? We move towards the investigation through the accused instead of going towards the accused through investigation." He reminded that "We heard a case yesterday in which a 20-year-old boy was murdered by police officials. Fortunately, the CCTV footage was acquired and the murderers were identified."

Court rejected the bail pleas of three accused while accepting that of one accused. The accused Ghulam Mehdi, Muhammad Khan and Shah Mardan easily escaped from the court when their pleas were rejected. Court accepted accused Shaman Ali's pre-arrest bail plea on the basis of doubt. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2019.