KARACHI, Oct 26: A federal government organization, Petroman, has sacked the services of at least 20 of its employees without giving any reasons for, and benefits of retirement to them.

The terminated officials have urged the authorities to reconsider their cases and demanded that they be either reinstated at Petroman or absorbed in any other government organization or be provided all retirement benefits plus mutually agreed incentives.

Eleven of the 20 terminated officials had been working in PERAC, another organizations of the federal government, and were transferred to Petroman a few years back. Nine of them had been working in the PIDC, another government organization, and were transferred to Petroman some years ago.

All of these terminated employees were regular/ permanent government servants and some of them had been working for over three decades. The categories of the terminated employees range between senior executives and sweepers.

The termination letters issued on Oct 8, say: “It has been decided by the competent authority in exercise of powers under Rule 21 of the Service Rules to terminate your services with effect from November 8, 2003. The intervening period is to be treated as period of notice. The position of your dues and liabilities will be communicated to you in due course of time”.

The Rule 21 (termination of service at the instance of the corporation) says: “The corporation may at any time, discharge an employee from service or terminate his services by giving one month’s notice of such discharge or termination by paying salary for the period of notice, in lieu of such a notice. Such a notice shall be given to run from the day next after the day of the notice. The notice pay will be monthly basic salary.”

The terminated employees who earlier belonged to PERAC are Dr Maroof Imam, Atta M. K. Madni, Pervaiz Jamal, Ahmad Omer, Rashida Khalidi, Nadeem Qadri, Mohammad Rizwan, Fazal Amin, Shakir Mian, Anwer Hussain and Arif Masih.

The terminated employees who earlier belonged to PIDC are Gulsher Memon, Shauket Ali Memon, Sohaila Shehzad, I. H. Bhatti, Fazal H. Bhatti, Rehmat Ali, Zameerul Hassan, Nafees Mian, and M. Ashraf Khan.

In a similar case earlier, an official of the PIDC, Waseem Akhtar, who was also transferred to Petroman, had moved the ministry urging for cancellation of his transfer and reinstatement at the PIDC. He was allowed to return to the PIDC.

Some of the terminated employees also asked for cancellation of their transfer and repatriation to their parent organizations, but they were not allowed.

Those who formerly belonged to the PIDC also refer to a memorandum regarding the status of workers and officers of PIDC. It says: “The post of an officer in the management / executive / supervisory cadre in Grade E - I and above of the PIDC, its subsidiaries and units will continue to remain inter-transferable with the approval of the chairman PIDC being also the chairman of the PIDC subsidiaries and units.

“In case of transfer of an officer his services will be treated as on deputation and his lien will be treated in the parent company / subsidiary as the case may be. The salary drawn by him in the parent company or subsidiary will remain unchanged during the period on deputation, whereas perquisites admissible to him will be as per entitlement of officers of his grade in the borrowing company, provided they are not less favourable.”

Petroman’s general manager Usman Ahmad, during whose tenure these 20 employees were terminated, has also asked for repatriation to his parent organization, the National Refinery. He has left Petroman but has yet to join at the Refinery. Despite repeated attempts he could not be approached.