KARACHI, Sept 4: The Federal Service Tribunal reinstated on Wednesday an employee of the Oil and Gas Development Corporation with retrospective effect and directed the corporation to defray the expenses incurred by him on pursuing his appeal before it.

Appellant Rizwan Mustafa joined the corporation as assistant cementation technician in 1988 and was promoted as assistant marketing officer in 1994. In September 1999, he was redesignated as cementation techinician and transferred from the Uchh gas plant to Burzi Well No 1. He applied for five days casual leave, which was granted. He sought extension of leave on medical grounds and the OGDC production department served him with a charge sheet for wilful absence from duty in November 1999. An inquiry was subsequently held and he was dismissed from service with effect from October 19, 1999, in February 2000.

He made a departmental representation and moved the tribunal through Advocate Mohammad Nawaz Shaikh on its failure to elicit any response. A bench comprising FST members Akbar M. Memon and Barkat Ali Baloch noted that no decision was taken on the appellant’s leave applications. He was treated as unauthorizedly and wilfully absent from duty though leave was due in his account and was retrospectively dismissed from service on the sole ground. He was admittedly available in Karachi but inquiry was conducted in Islamabad in his absence. No major penalty, it observed, could be awarded under the rules without affording a proper opportunity of defence to the accused employee.