Punjab Services Tribunal: Though declared illegal, 4 members stay on

SC declared appointment of retired civil servants illegal 2 months ago.

LAHORE:

Though the Supreme Court declared their appointment illegal two months ago, four members of Punjab Service Tribunal (PST) continue to use their offices and the perks attached to them but are doing none of the work, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The tribunal’s chairman, Justice (retired) Saeed Akhtar, is still hearing cases, but the four members have not heard them since the SC judgement came out in March. Sources in the tribunal said that the backlog stood at 5,380 then and more than 2,000 new cases had been filed since then. Every day, the cause list is fixed at the tribunal’s doors, but the readers merely give the litigants adjournments.

The Express Tribune spoke to several civil servants who have filed cases at the tribunal and all expressed frustration at the halt in judicial work, but none were willing to go on the record for fear that they would be victimised for going public.

Meanwhile, the four members   Muhammad Tariq Ayub, Abdul Majeed Bhatti, Kareem Bakhsh Abid and Shafique Hussain Bukhari – punctually turn up at their offices in chauffer-driven vehicles every morning and stay there till the end of office hours. They are reported to hold a meeting with the PST chairman every day from 11am to 12 noon.



SC verdict

On March 23, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry declared all the appointments at the Federal Service Tribunal and all four provincial service tribunals illegal. “The concerned law secretaries are hereby allowed 30 days to implement this judgment forthwith by making fresh appointments of chairmen/members of the tribunals. If no steps are taken within the stipulated time, either through temporary or permanent legislation, the incumbent chairman/members of the tribunals shall seize to hold the said positions,” reads the verdict.

The bench held that a tribunal member, whose job was to adjudicate on service matters for civil servants, could be a person qualified to be a district judge, a serving civil servant, or a lawyer qualified to be a High Court judge. The tribunal chairman could be a retired High Court judge. And the High Court chief justice must be consulted on appointments to the provincial tribunals. But the tribunals were full of retired civil servants, the bench observed.

Acting on the SC’s judgment, on April 23, the provincial government issued the Punjab Service Tribunal (Amendment) Ordinance 2013, which made the post of tribunal member eligible only to judges, lawyers and serving secretaries, as the SC had desired.

The PST chairman, Justice (r) Akhtar, was allowed to continue in his post till the end of his term. In the previous month, one member, Najam Saeed, had resigned while another, Rai Ijaz Zaigham, was transferred to another post. The remaining four members, all grade-21 retired civil servants, were rendered ineligible.

The four have also filed a petition at the Lahore High Court, seeking directions to the government to refer their names to the chief justice for reappointment to the tribunals. They also sought a stay order on their removal by the government, but none was given.

Review ongoing

Law Secretary Abul Hassan Najmi told The Express Tribune that the Law Department, by drafting the ordinance, had done its duty and it was now up to the Services and General Administration Department to get it implemented.

He said Justice (r) Akhtar was being allowed to continue in his job because he fit the criteria set by the Supreme Court in that he was a retired judge and his appointment had been made in consultation with the LHC chief justice. The ordinance states that the government must set up a three-member panel to review the cases of the incumbent chairman and members. Najmi said that the review committee was holding hearings. The latest was held on Tuesday, he said, but he did not know the details about the proceedings.

The Express Tribune was able to talk briefly to Muhammad Tariq Ayub, one of the four members, as he sat in the retiring room of Tribunal 1. He said that questions should be directed towards the tribunal chairman. He declined to comment on questions about his status as a member.

Advocate Zohaib Imran Sheikh, who specialises in service laws, said that since the SC had declared the appointments illegal, a review committee could not overturn the judgment. He said that the members, by continuing in their offices, were committing contempt of court. They should have stepped down on the day the judgment was issued, he said. The impasse was affecting litigants, he said.

The S&GAD secretary and Law Minister Rana Sanaullah were unavailable for comment.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2013.