KARACHI, Jan 25: The Sindh Services Tribunal decided over 1,100 appeals during the past three years, while 630 appeals are still pending disposal.
The tribunal, headed by Justice Abdul Ghani Shaikh and comprising two members, received a record 420 appeals from the employees, dismissed or terminated from services by various provincial government departments, in 2000.
Inquiries showed that 817 appeals were pending disposal when Justice Shaikh took over as chairman of the SST on Nov 15, 2000. Of these, 694 were decided. As many as 847 appeals were filed during the first three-year tenure of Justice Shaikh, who also decided 404 of them.
As many as 4,957 appeals were filed to the tribunal since its establishment in 1973, under the Article 212 of the Constitution. The registrar of the tribunal, Mr Jameel Ahmed Rajpar, said most of the appeals were usually filed by the employees of the police and education departments.
He said the tribunal's decisions on as many as 527 appeals had been challenged in the Supreme Court, which decided 363 cases, while not a single decision of the tribunal was set aside by the apex court.
Lawyers dealing with the appeals of the sacked employees said the tribunal decided more cases in favour of the applicants. They said that 80 per cent cases against the tribunal's decisions were filed in the Supreme Court by the government.
The lawyers, frequently appearing before the tribunal, included manzoor Ali Khan, M M Aqil, Shabbir Ahmed Awan, Abdus Sattar Mughul and Abdul Latif Ansari. The lawyers complained that the decisions given by the tribunal were not smoothly implemented by the concerned departments. The government departments also did not follow the rules and regulations while dismissing an employee from services, otherwise, the number of appeals in the tribunal would be very low, they added.
The tribunal, which has an annual budget of Rs5.2 million, is also stated to be short of staff. At present, total 22 people, including the chairman and the two members, are posted in the tribunal, while seven post have been lying vacant for many years.
The tribunal staffers said only seven rooms of the barrack No 80, in the Sindh Secretariat, were being used by the tribunal. The rooms included the one given to the Assistant Advocate General, Mrs Tabassum Ghazanfar, who represents the state in the tribunal.
Figures showed that as many as 260 appeals were filed in 2003, of which the tribunal decided 108 appeals and the remaining were pending decisions. In 2002, 161 out of total 303 appeals are still pending disposal.
Inquiries show 54 out of 387 appeals, filed in 1999, are still pending disposal, while as many as 72 out of the total 420 appeals, filed in 2000, are awaiting decisions.
A remarkable increase in the number of appeals was registered in 1998, when in all, 363 appeals were filed with the tribunal. Next year 387 appeals were filed and, of them, 333 were decided. The inquiries showed only nine appeals were filed in 1973, when the tribunal was established, while in 1981, only 61 appeals were filed.
