January 18, 2006	Wednesday	Zilhaj 17, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 17: The Supreme Court was told here on Tuesday that the Federal Service Tribunal was not entitled to decide the cases of employees of government corporations since their appointments could not be termed in the “Service of Pakistan”. Representing the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), the United Bank Limited and the State Bank of Pakistan, senior advocate Khalid Anwar argued before a nine-member bench that Section 2A of the Service Tribunal Act (STA) 1973 was unconstitutional because it was outside the ambit of Article 260 of the Constitution.

Led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the bench is hearing about 4,000 appeals to settle a controversy whether Section 2A of the Service Tribunal Act (STA) 1973 is against Article 212 (administrative courts and tribunals) of the Constitution and whether employees of corporations are entitled to appeal under Section 2A of the act.

Other members of the bench are Justice Rana Bhagwandas, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice M Javed Buttar, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani and Justice Syed Jamshed Ali.

Majority of the appellants mainly from Sindh and Balochistan belong to different organizations like the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Defence, Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), National Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIAC), State Bank of Pakistan, State Life Insurance, United Bank Limited, Pakistan Telecommunication Company, Pakistan Air Force Colleges etc.

Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan informed the court that President Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Malik Mohammad Qayyum will represent the federal government in the case that was adjourned for Wednesday.

Khalid Anwar said Article 260 of the Constitution contained the definition of service of Pakistan under which parliament had been given the power to declare any service as being the service of Pakistan in addition to the class of government servants.

By means of Section 2A parliament had declared in 1977 the employees of government corporations to be in the service of Pakistan for purposes of STA only.

The consequence of this declaration, he argued, was that such employees could file appeals with the tribunal that was empowered to reinstate services only in cases of regular government service.

The counsel argued that Section 2A did not fulfil the requirements of Article 260 of the Constitution because Section 2A was not enacted to fulfil the constitutional purposes as envisaged in Article 260.

In case the employees of these corporations were declared to be in service of Pakistan for constitutional purposes, their consequence would be that under Article 240 of the Constitution both their appointments and terms and conditions of service would also have to be regulated by the Civil Service Act 1973, which admittedly had not been done when Section 2A was introduced in STA 1973, he said. Similarly, no corresponding amendment was made to the Civil Service Act.

Thus employment in government corporations cannot be termed to be service of Pakistan and accordingly their cases cannot be decided by the service tribunals in the manner as is done in the case of the government servants.