KARACHI, Nov 17: The Federal Service Tribunal reinstated on Monday 213 senior employees of the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation sacked on Jan 31, 2001.
Allowing appeals preferred by the employees, whose services were summarily ‘dispensed with’ on payment of 90 days pay in lieu of notice period under the PNSC (Service) Regulations, 1984, a bench of the tribunal comprising Akbar M. Memon and Barkat Ali Baloch said the entire exercise was in violation of the principles of natural justice. It was aimed at depriving the appellants of their pensionary benefits, the tribunal said while setting aside the dismissal order of Jan 30, 2001.
It directed the PNSC to reinstate the appellants and ‘make a fresh exercise’ of relieving those who have reached the age of superannuation with all pensionary benefits in accordance with the law. Those who have not attained the age of superannuation would remain in service till their retirement. In case any appellant has received ‘some amount’ on account of gratuity or provident fund, the same would be returned by him within three months of his rejoining. The period between January 31, 2001, and the day of their rejoining would be treated as ‘leave of the kind due’ to ensure the continuity of service.
The tribunal noted PNSC counsel Zahid Ibrahim’s contention that the employees were sacked under ‘a retrenchment policy’, which had been approved by the Supreme Court in the case of the United Bank in 1999.
“In our view”, a 23-page judgment of the tribunal said, “the case is distinguishable as the United Bank had introduced a retrenchment scheme under a golden handshake scheme”. In the PNSC’s case, the appellants had been offered three months pay despite the fact that they had put in 25 years of service.
Referring to the Supreme Court judgments of 2001 in the cases of Naseer Ahmed and Tariq Ali against the UBL, the tribunal pointed out that benefits were granted by the court in accordance with the bank’s service rules. In the instant case, the employees had been prevented from serving the corporation for 25 years so as to qualify for pensionary benefits.
Even the policy of ‘last come, first go’ was not adopted and some of the employees who had exceeded the age of retirement were summarily dismissed from service to deprive them of pensionary benefits. As for the losses incurred or profits earned by the corporation, the tribunal said it was not required to make a thorough probe into the matter. A full picture of accounts was not before it.
About ‘certain payments’ made to the employees belatedly referred to by the PNSC counsel, the tribunals said the vouchers placed before it ‘made calculations till 1996’ whereas the service dispensation order was passed on January 30,2001. “Some vouchers appear to have been prepared in 2002 and some letters appear to have been sent to the appellants in 2001 ‘to collect their cheques’.
Some of the employees, the tribunal noted, had received their gratuity and provident fund while others had not. “This shows that the respondents (the PNSC) were themselves not sure about the final settlement and this was the reason that they were not able to raise the plea in their comments or their arguments. If at all any payment has been received by the appellants, it would not operate as an estoppel against them as held by the Supreme Court in a 2001 case against the UBL”, the tribunal declared..
Advocates M. Aqil Awan, Mohammad Nawaz Shaikh, M.M. Tariq, Abdul Sattar Mughal and Ghulam Qadir Jatoi appeared for the appellants.
