October 15, 2003	Wednesday	Sha'aban 18, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 14: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the management of the SSGCL to submit the compliance report on its judgment passed six months ago regarding reinstatement of the company’s 774 employees.

The order was passed by a seven-member bench on the contempt of court petitions filed by the reinstated employees of the SSGCL, complaining non-implementation of the court’s judgment.

A five-member bench of the Supreme Court on May 2, 2003 ordered reinstatement of 774 employees of the SSGCL.

The federal government, for the first time, has tried to become party in the case and has engaged Justice (retd) Malik Qayyum to represent it.

All high officials of the SSGCL, including its managing director Munawar Baseer, were present in the court on Tuesday.

The court, after hearing Khalid Anwar’s plea that implementation of the order would cost the company Rs2 billion insisted that the judgment should be implemented.

The SSGCL’s lawyer contended that applicability of the judgment would not be confined to 774 person only and would apply to about 2,000 persons.

The counsel said the company was getting no operational profit.

He was responding to the arguments given by the petitioners that the company’s financial position was robust and it had announced 18 per cent dividend to the share holders in the last financial year.

The SSGCL counsel said that most petitioners were not qualified and were inducted into the company under political pressure. He said some of them even could not spell the word “economics” correctly.

The SSGCL counsel said that the company had no intention of violating the court’s order and was scrutinizing all cases for the purpose of reinstatement in compliance with the order of the court.

The case was adjourned to the first week of November.

Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, head of the bench, observed that the company had not raised the issue of financial implications earlier and its management should first honour the judgment.

The bench, in another case, directed the Federal Service Tribunal to decide the case of another batch of the SSGCL’s terminated employees within a month.

The seven-member bench consisted of Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Qazi Muhammad Farooq, Justice Rana Bhagwandas, Justice Mian Muhammad Ajmal Mian, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan and Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar.