May 22, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 16, 1429

KARACHI, May 21: Despite orders of the Supreme Court, the management of the Sui Southern Gas Company has not reinstated over 1,000 employees of the company, most of whom were employed during the Benazir Bhutto government, to their respective positions, even after the passage of several years.

These workers have been protesting outside the utility’s offices and various installations but the management of the gas company, which apparently does not have the requisite technical expertise to run this kind of utility, has decided to pay salaries to them at home, not allowing them to resume their jobs.

The affected SSGC employees include technical as well as non-technical staff. While they are being denied their right to work, the utility has outsourced meter-reading. There were also complaints of increasing gas leakages and thefts.

When Zuhair Siddiqui, senior general manager for management services, was asked in writing by Dawn to explain how many such employees were affected and why they had not been reinstated to their respective positions, his reply was that “during the period between June 1994 and November 1996, Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd inducted a total of 4,257 people on a temporary assignment basis for a period of six months as (a) management trainees and trainee engineers on training basis (b) subordinate staff on temporary assignment”.

In a written response by Nasreen Hussain, deputy general-manager, responsible for the media, SSGC’s contention was that “the letters of induction of these persons clearly stated that these were temporary assignments and company would not be able to provide them with permanent employment at any stage.

“However, a total of 1,258 inductions were absorbed on the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and were paid at SSGC standard remuneration scales”.

Asked why they were being paid salaries without being assigned any job, she said that primarily it was done to honour the court’s order and that they didn’t have the required specialized skill. Zuhair Siddiqui, however, said that “it will take some time to develop the necessary infrastructure to absorb these people”.

With regards to any specialized recruitment thereafter, this has been done not at higher salaries but again at SSGC standard remuneration scales. There was no differential treatment between the former and the latter appointments, he said in the written reply.

Mr Siddiqui also denied that 200 people had been recruited for specialized jobs. He said that only 15 people, mostly with skills in legal and finance fields, were recruited.

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court , headed by the then acting chief justice, Rana Bhagwandas, and including Justices Tasadduq Hussain Jilani and Nasirul Mulk, had taken a serious notice of the non-compliance of the court’s orders for the reinstatement of Dr Anwar Ali Sahto and others in the various petitions.

Dr Sahto was among the many petitioners who had the grievance that he had not been restored in his original cadre despite specific directions of the court. The company’s deputy general-manager (legal) had informed the court that the petitioner was offered a lower position but he declined to accept it.