Discrimination in allowances for K-P engineers lands in SC

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Thursday suspended contempt of court proceedings in a high court regarding the non-payment of executive allowance to mine engineers in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

This was directed on Thursday by a three-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC), headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, as he heard an appeal filed by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government.

At the outset of Thursday’s hearing, CJ Ahmed asked that the order of Peshawar High Court (PHC), which had been challenged by the provincial government, has already been implemented. What objections does the provincial government have now, he asked.

At this, the Additional Advocate General (AAG) told the bench that the PHC, while ruling on the matter of providing executive allowances to engineers, had directed the government to either pay the allowance to all engineers in the province or pay no one and sent the matter to the K-P chief secretary to decide. Acting on the verdict, the chief secretary approved the allowance for all engineers, except for those under the mining department as per the terms agreed with the civil servants.

However, engineers of the mining department filed a contempt of court petition against the chief secretary in the PHC and that this appeal was against those proceedings, the AAG explained.

Naveed Akhtar, the lawyer representing the engineers, maintained that the decision taken by the chief secretary was not in line with the law.

He contended that even the school teachers who are appointed as secretaries in ministries on deputation receive this allowance and that secretaries of 29 ministers of the K-P government are currently receiving this allowance.

However, he added that those who rose to the position through internal promotions are deprived of this allowance, adding that the allowance for mining engineers was stopped by the chief secretary without providing any cogent reason.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the bench suspended the contempt of court proceedings against the K-P chief secretary and issued notices to the respondents. The hearing was then adjourned indefinitely.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2020.