KARACHI, Sept 1: A division bench of the Sindh High Court issued notice to the Pakistan Steel management on Thursday in a writ petition questioning its refusal to promote an employee.

Petitioner Ali Akbar Narejo submitted through Advocate Abdul Razzak that he joined the PS in early 1980s and was promoted assistant manager in 1985. Under the Pakistan Steel Officers Service Rules and Regulations, he should have been promoted as deputy manager in 1992, as manager in 1999 and as deputy general manager by June 2006.

Departmental promotion committee meetings were regularly held but the petitioner was consistently ignored and officers junior to him were promoted despite an undertaking before the Supreme Court that promotions would be made strictly on the basis of seniority and fitness.

The petitioner said he submitted departmental representations and finally approached the Federal Service Tribunal for redress of his grievance. While the matter was under consideration of the FST, the Supreme Court declared in June 2006 that employees of corporations having their own statutory rules were not entitled to move the tribunal under Section 2-A of the Federal Service Tribunal Act. They should seek their remedy from the competent forum.

Advocate Razzak argued that the SC ousted the FST jurisdiction in matters relating to corporation employees whose terms and conditions of service were regulated by statutory rules. Thus the bar contained in Article 212 of the Constitution against high courts entertaining service matters was no longer applicable. The high courts were the competent forum as the issue involved enforcement of rights under the law and rules.

The bench, which consisted of Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Yasmeen Abbasy, remarked that the question raised deserved consideration and issued a notice to the Pakistan Steel.