Equal opportunities: Govt to pay allowances to law dept employees

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court has ordered the provincial finance department to pay 16 law department employees allowances which are at par with Civil Secretariat employees.

The order was issued on Thursday by a bench of Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Irshad Qaiser. The court was hearing a petition filed by Jehangir Shan and 15 others through their counsels, Ijaz Anwar and Zartaj Anwar.

During the hearing, the court was told these employees have been working in the law, justice and parliamentary affairs department since 1995 and have been carrying out duties just like other provincial secretariat employees.

Ijaz told the court the provincial government had announced 20% utility and 10% special allowances for secretariat employees. However, 16 employees who are working in the solicitor’s wing of the law department have not been provided these allowances. According to Ijaz, this form of discrimination goes against constitutional principles.

Counsel for the provincial government urged the court to not extend these allowances to law department employees, saying they are not Civil Secretariat employees. The PHC ordered the department to pay the employees the allowances.

Dismissed

In a separate hearing on Friday, Justice Seth dismissed the bail application of a man who was arrested for allegedly kidnapping two people for ransom.

Zameen Khan, a 75-year-old man, was taken into custody for allegedly kidnapping Mukhtiar Zada and Gul Muhammad.

Khan’s counsel told the court his client was arrested on October 18, 2014 and accused of demanding Rs5.2 million as ransom. He added both men were recovered from the custody of other suspects and Khan was not directly charged in the FIR.

According to the counsel, the only charge levelled against his client is that the SIM cards used to orchestrate the crime were registered in his name.

However, the state’s counsel, Matiullah Baloch, told the court these SIMs were recovered from Khan’s possession.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2015.