Customs dept employee wants service regularised

employee of the Customs Department working at Sost in Gojal appeals to Chief Justice of the Supreme Appellate Court.

GILGIT: An employee of the Customs Department working at Sost in Gojal has appealed to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Appellate Court, Gilgit-Baltistan, to take notice of the injustice meted out to him by the department by not regularising his service.

Doostan Ali, a resident of Sost, has been working in Customs Dept at the Pakistan-China border check-post as Farash (grade-1) since 1986 with meagre salary.

“My father has been working in the Customs Station for the last 25 years but his services have not been regularised yet despite various commitments by the officials concerned,” Negehban Ali, a student of class 10, told The Express Tribune.

He said that his father was time and again assured that he will be adjusted against a suitable post in the grade-IV but that never materialised, although a number of backdoor appointments in the dept have been made since. Due to this injustice he has not been able to meet our family’s needs, including my educational expenses,he said.

“This is a violation of basic human rights,” he said. The son asked the authorities concerned why his father has been subjected to this inhumane treatment.

Doostan Ali hails from Gojal valley the largest and strategically the most sensitive tehsil of G-B which was hit hard by a disaster earlier this year. More than 25,000 people of the valley in upper Hunza have been stranded since January 4 after a massive landslide swept away parts of Karakoram Highway at Attabad Hunza. At least 21 people died in the landslide that also blocked the Hunza River turning it into a 23-kilomter-long lake that submerged five villages upstream. It also cut off the valley from rest of the region severing Pakistan-China land link. The disaster has badly affected the economy of the valley and people like Doostan Ali are facing great hardship in making ends meet. “I appeal to the chief justice of SAC to direct the authorities to submit  a list of vacancies filled in the customs dept since 1986 till today in violation of rules,” he contended.

He said that those who joined service along with me have now attained 25 years of regular service qualifying for all benefits under the government service rule while he is still drawing a fixed amount per month with no increments allowed to him.

Published in The Express Tribune, November  17^th, 2010.