April 2, 2002	Tuesday	Muharram 18,1423

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LAHORE, April 1: The National Savings Directorate is an attached department of the federal finance ministry and its employees being civil servants cannot form a union for collective bargaining, the Lahore High Court held on Monday.

The National Savings Employees Union, which had long been in existence as a registered body was not covered by the right conferred on every citizen to form unions and associations by Article 17 of the Constitution, which was subject to reasonable restrictions imposed by law, Justice Syed Jamshed Ali said in his order.

The union was lately disbanned by the government by a notification and petitioner Abdul Khaliq Bismil, an office-bearer, challenged the notification as being violative of the Constitution and the labour laws.

Dismissing the petition, the judge also observed that the NSC employees were not ‘workmen’ in contemplation of law.

LCCI CASE: Meanwhile, a division bench reserved its judgment on an appeal moved by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry against the dismissal of a petition filed by it for disbandment of the LCCI Employees Union, which was registered in the early 70s and had been working since.

Appearing for the LCCI, Advocate Khwaja Saeeduz Zafar submitted that the chamber was voluntary, non-profit organization like a club or a bar association. Its employees could not be allowed to form a union under the law. The chamber was neither an industry nor a commercial concern.