September 18, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 17, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Sept 17: Finance Minister Syed Naveed Qamar has asked the establishment secretary to work out measures for reinstatement of more than 4,000 government employees who were sacked after the dismissal of Benazir Bhutto’s government on Nov 5, 1996.

The services of these employees, falling under the administrative purview of various ministries and divisions and subordinate corporations, were terminated by the caretaker and the Pakistan Muslim League governments in 1996 and 1997.

Now, the PPP-led coalition government has constituted a ministerial committee, headed by the finance minister, with a mandate to consider administrative measures for reinstatement of these employees.

Speaking at a meeting of the committee here on Tuesday, the finance minister directed its secretary to submit a report on legal and financial implications of the matter at the next session of the committee.

Minister for Labour and Manpower Khurshid Shah, Federal Minister for Local Government Ghulam Ahmad Bilour and Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf also attended the meeting.

The committee secretary might further recommend a set of viable administrative options for rehabilitation of such cases, which must be based on a workable legal basis taking into account broad categories, Mr Qamar said.

The secretary to the establishment division briefed the meeting on administrative and technical aspects of the cases, adding that the matter merited more scrutiny since it had legal and financial implications. Consultations with the finance division and law and justice division were in progress, he added.

The finance minister directed the committee to differentiate between ordinary disciplinary cases and others. The possibility of a review board as a model to rectify unjust terminations through review and deliberation was also considered.

The committee discussed a legislative instrument to reconsider such cases for rehabilitation.