July 10, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 6, 1429

KARACHI, July 9: The Sindh High Court dismissed with costs three petitions moved by as many contractual employees of the Pakistan International Airlines against their supersession on Wednesday.

Petitioners Tanveerur Rehman, Adnan Ahmed and Adnan Zaraiz Qureshi were appointed first officers for five years in October 2003. They complained that officers junior to them in service were being assigned to superior aircraft in disregard of their rights.

A division bench comprising acting chief justice Azizullah M. Memon and Justice Khalid Ali Z. Qazi observed in its dismissal order that according to the Cockpit Crew Service Rules of 2001, ‘no seniority rights shall accrue to a crew employed under special contract.’ Even if he’s absorbed in regular employment, his seniority would accrue from the date of such employment.

Even the argument that the petitioners were seeking to enforce their rights not against regular but against contractual employees who joined the airline subsequently was found devoid of any force. The right to claim ‘inter se’ seniority vis-ŕ-vis contractual employees has to flow from the contract itself. The contract, the bench remarked, did not confer any seniority rights on the petitioners.

The bench also found the petitions ‘materially deficient in many aspects.’ The junior officers superseding them had neither been identified nor cited as respondents. The date of supersession had also not been specified.

The bench, however, rejected the PIA’s contention that the petitions were not maintainable as its service rules were not statutory and its relationship with its employees should be governed by the principle of master and servant.

A petition under Article 199 of the Constitution and a suit under Section 9 of the Civil Procedure Code, the bench held, would lie for declaration, injunction or directions even if service rules are not statutory provided the employer is an entity controlled or principally owned by the government; and the action complained of is in violation of the law or other standards found in public administrative law, which is dynamic in growth.