May 10, 2006	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 11, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, May 9: The Federal Service Tribunal (FST) here on Tuesday directed the management of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) not to force the 57 contractual programme producers to appear in a written test scheduled for May 10 for induction of 26 regular programme producers.

The tribunal members — Habib Ahmed Zaidi and Saeed Ahmed Zaidi — issued these directives to the PBC management in a miscellaneous petition filed by the contractual producers.

The tribunal has also directed the management to refrain from taking any adverse action against the contractual producers for challenging their authority.

The appellants had contended that PBC had taken the decision of the induction of regular programme producers in haste as it did not even mentioned their roll numbers while sending them the letters to appear in the test examination. Therefore, the management sent another letter to each of them bearing their roll numbers.

The contractual producers said at the time of their induction three years back, they went through the same competitive selection procedure laid down by the PBC and approved by its Board of Directors. They said they were already performing the job of regular producers as they were assigned duties to run the whole radio units in the country’s remote areas like Azad Kashmir.

They contended that the management was happy with their performance which was evident from their annual confidential reports (ACRs). Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and the then federal information minister, Shaikh Rashid Ahmed, had also appreciated the performance of the contractual programme producers.

The tribunal in its decision observed: “The learned counsel for the appellants argued that there are no grounds for not regularising the services of the appellants and asking them to reappear in test/interview”.