Punjab services: Tribunal Member nominations to be forwarded to LHC in one week

Tribunal dysfunctional since SC declared members’ appointments illegal.

LAHORE:

The government is to recommend to the LHC chief justice in one week candidates to be appointed as members of the Punjab Services Tribunal, which has been dysfunctional for the last six months because of a dispute over the validity of its members, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The Supreme Court on March 23 declared the appointments of all members of the tribunal illegal and directed the provincial governments to make fresh appointments within 30 days of enacting new legislation on the requirements for candidates.

The Punjab Service Tribunals (Amendment) Act of 2013 was signed into law by the governor on August 21. A committee set up to review the eligibility of the PST members in light of the new law found them all to be ineligible, said Implementation and Coordination Secretary Ali Tahir.

The chairman, Justice (r) Saeed Akhtar, has been allowed to continue as head of the tribunal by a clause in the act, though he is above the maximum age for the chairman.

Services Secretary Mubashar Raza said that a list of candidates for the six tribunal member posts was being finalised and would be forwarded to the chief justice of the Lahore High Court within a week. He said that a summary in this regard awaited the chief minister’s approval. The chief justice’s approval of the candidates is mandatory under the new law.

Sources said Justice (r) Akhtar had also written to the chief secretary recently calling for a quick resolution of the problem, as apart from the chairman, no one at the tribunal had been hearing cases for six months. He noted that the matter had reached the Lahore High Court and there could be serious repercussions should it end up before the Supreme Court once again.

The backlog at the tribunal, which decides cases related to civil servants’ service matters such as wrongful terminations, has swelled to over 10,000 cases.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2013.