KARACHI, Feb 20: The Sindh High Court directed the National Bank of Pakistan to allow its retired employees all benefits accruing to them till the date they were actually relieved from service.

One hundred and forty-six former NBP employees complained through Advocate Islam Hussain that they opted for the so-called golden handshake scheme for voluntary retirement in 1997 but were relieved on different dates in 1998, 1999 and 2000. In the meantime, their serving colleagues who had not opted for the scheme were given 100 per cent ad-hoc relief and they continued to serve on their 1997 salaries. Their pensions were also calculated on the basis of 1997 salaries.

Following the rule laid down by the Supreme Court in identical cases, an SHC division bench comprising Justices Khilji Arif Hussain and Arshad Noor Khan held that the petitioners were entitled to all the benefits as employees till the date they served the bank. Their pensions should also be re-calculated after adding the pay increases given to their serving colleagues to their basic salaries.

EOBI promotions stayed

The bench also stayed the meeting of the Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution promotion committee scheduled for Friday afternoon on a petition moved by two EOBI grade officers. The petitioners submitted through Advocates Abdul Mujeeb Pirzada and Syed Khalid Shah that they were serving the institution’s law department in senior positions and were entitled to promotion under its regulations. However, an (EOBI) group 6 officer working in other department had been hastily inducted in the law department from another cadre and a promotion committee scheduled to promote him to grade 8 as law director. The objections raised by them were still pending with the institution’s chairman.

Issuing a notice to the EOBI director concerned, the bench restrained the institution from proceeding with the impugned promotion.

Notice to home secy

The bench issued notices to the home secretary and the provincial police officers in a petition moved by three candidates selected as assistant sub-inspectors of police in 1996 through Advocate Mohammad Nawaz Shaikh. The petitioners said despite their final selection, they were not issued appointment letters after the ouster of the second Benazir Bhutto government in November 1996.

The petitioners said 100 ASIs selected in 1996 were ordered by the SHC to be issued appointment letters in December 2007. Under a Supreme Court judgment, they should also have been allowed the benefit of the court order but their representations in this behalf failed to elicit any response from the home department and police high-ups.

Notices to AG, police

The bench also issued notices to the advocate-general and the police high-ups to explain under what law the Sindh police has published a list of ‘most wanted’ individuals and included in it the name of a person who had admittedly been declared innocent.

Mst Iqra Fawad submitted through Advocates Hamid Munir and Yousuf Moulvi that her husband, Fawad Muqeet, who had a Saudi work permit, used to visit his father, who was lawfully doing business in Saudi Arabia. However, he was arrested by the authorities at Riyadh airport on his arrival there in August 2006. She approached the Saudi authorities and they informed her that Fawad had been detained following a report from the police authorities in Karachi.

She moved a petition in the SHC against the alleged report but the provincial home department, the federal interior ministry and the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation said in their comments in 2007 that no report had been sent to the Saudi authorities in respect of Fawad or for his detention. The petition was disposed of.

However, she came to know recently that Fawad’s name appeared in the list of ‘most wanted persons’ on the official website of Sindh Police along with his picture. Her counsel said the police having declared Fawad innocent in 2007 could not now proclaim him as one of the most wanted persons. While there was a provision for listing ‘history sheeters’, there was no rule for lists of most wanted persons. They said Fawad, as confirmed by the police itself, was not involved in any criminal case or activity and no report against him was sent to Saudi authorities.

Notice to housing society

The bench issued notices to the APP Cooperative Housing Society and other respondents in a petition moved by Zaufishan Ashfaq who purchased a 400-square-yard plot in the society through her father, an employee of the news agency.

The petitioner said after receiving the entire price and development charges, the society has terminated her membership and cancelled her allotment. She said the society had been run by unelected officials for the last two decades and she had been unlawfully penalized for her father’s efforts to expose their misdeeds. Alleging that no audit report had been submitted to members since the year 2000, she requested the court to appoint an administrator for the society and order an inquiry into its affairs.