Remarriage: woman sacked by PR moves LHC
Lahore High Court's (LHC) Justice Jawad Hassan has sought a reply from Pakistan Railways (PR) on a petition challenging the termination from service of a woman who had remarried after her appointment on the basis of being the widow of an employee.
Petitioner Fatima Begum filed the petition through Advocate Mian Tahir Maqsood, contending that she was appointed in the department under the Financial Assistance Package (FAP) after the death of her husband. The department terminated her service after her second marriage.
The petitioner stated that the terms and conditions in the appointment order did not mention that her serviced would be dispensed with if she remarried. She made respondent the Pakistan Railways through its general manager, divisional superintendent and other officials.
She contended that she had applied for a job in the railways after the death of her husband Amjad Sajjad in 2011. Her late husband had been serving in basic scale-9 in the signals branch. After fulfilling all requirements, she was appointed under the Financial Assistance Package as a lower division clerk (BS-7). Subsequently, the petitioner’s family urged her to marry again for the sake of her two daughters and son.
On June 9 last year, she married Maqsood Ahmad Bhatti. She said a number of her colleagues attended her Nikah but no one informed her that she might face departmental action.
As the department came to know about her second marriage, it issued a notification of the termination of her service without serving a notice or seeking an explanation, the petitioner alleged. She said an application submitted by her was pending with a divisional superintendent of the railways.
The petitioner stated that the basic purpose of the Financial Assistance Package was to save the family of a deceased employee from hardship. For this reason, benefits like two-year advance rent, a financial package according to the pay scale of the employee, group life insurance and pensionary benefits are extended to the widow, so that her family might survive.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 2nd, 2020.