KARACHI, April 18: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), defying Supreme Court and Federal Services Tribunal orders, continues to repudiate pension claims submitted to it by as many as 15 staffers of the defunct Airport Development Authority (ADA).
The CAA reckons the employees, who were absorbed in the CAA following the ADA's merger with it, as 'fresh recruits'. According to the ex-ADA staffers, the CAA stand violates the SC verdict announced on Sept 14, 2000, upholding the civil judge ruling that the concerned employees may not be treated as new appointees.
They say the FST has disposed of their appeals and ordered that "the appellants shall be entitled to count their seniority in the CAA along with regular employees for the purpose of promotion and counting of ADA services towards pension."
The affected employees point out that the ministry of defence had also ruled that the seniority of ADA staff would be regulated in accordance with the government rules and regulations.
They say that despite running from pillar to post for years, majority of these retired personnel has failed to get justice as yet. They have complained that the CAA had granted seniority and promotion to a few selected ex-ADA staffers along with the regular workers which, they maintain, is discriminatory in nature and was being done in violation of the Article 25 of the Constitution.
The appellants are: Ashraf Zahid, Syed Nadeem Akhtar, Muhammed Arif, Asghar Ali, Akbar Ali Tahir, Ghulam Rasool, Mumtaz Hussain, Abdul Ghafoor, F. A. Tariq, Mohammed Tufail and Fida Mohammed.
