KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has granted last opportunity to the federal authorities to settle all dues of pensioners of the Pakistan Steel Mills till May 15.

The two-judge bench headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar warned that if the payment was not made within the stipulated period, the accounts/funds of the federal government will be attached forthwith for settlement of the dues of pensioners.

It also directed the federal secretaries of finance and industries & production as well as the chief executive officer of the PSM to be in attendance at the next hearing.

At the outset of the hearing, the secretary of industries & production, additional secretary of the cabinet division, additional secretary of finance and acting CEO of the PSM appeared and submitted replies to the show-cause notices issued on the last hearing.

However, the bench rejected their replies for being unsatisfactory and disappointing and observed that the respondents have still not come up with any concrete proposal and timeframe to settle the admitted liability of the petitioners.

Post-retirement benefits cannot be withheld or delayed on any ground, court observes

Thereafter, the additional secretary of finance after consulting other officials present in courtroom, submitted a handwritten statement which said that in order to comply with court order, the finance division must arrange funds from expected refund of unutilised amount as last date of refund of such amount was April 30 and the finance division should try to arrange such funds by May 15.

The finance division shall make arrangements as much as possible which may be up to 10 per cent of present claims of petitioners and remaining amount of claim shall be arranged by budgetary allocations in next budget, it added.

The bench observed that it was not impressed with such proposal as post-retirement benefits of the petitioners cannot be withheld or delayed on any ground whatsoever especially when the same was their only source of income.

“However, before ordering attachment of the accounts/funds of the federal government in terms of order dated 04.02.2020, we deem it appropriate to grant last and final opportunity to the federal government and PSM to settle all the dues of the petitioners, subject to the condition that payments shall be made to them by the federal government in terms of the above-quoted statement without fail latest by May 15”, it added.

The retired employees of PSM petitioned the SHC in 2017 contending that they were not being paid their gratuity, leave encashment and provident funds since 2013.

Pilot project for orphans

Another bench of the SHC directed the chief secretary to ensure that a pilot project for orphans must be made functional within a month.

A single bench of the SHC headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar also asked the chief secretary to constitute a committee to run the affairs of the pilot project.

The bench said that all necessary facilities, including ambulances, dispensary and special unit for reunion of orphans should be provided at the pilot project.

During the proceedings, the deputy director orphanage wing, social welfare department submitted that there was a scheme of a pilot project in Malir and a building was also available, which can be used for such project.

It also came on record that allocated amount for pilot project with regard to orphans was maintained by the social welfare department while the same pattern the bureau has already been dealing with the issues of orphans in Punjab.

The bench observed that if there has been a scheme of pilot project and allocation has also been made then there should be no reason to keep such project hanging.

It also directed the secretary of works and services to be in attendance at the next hearing and submit the report regarding the status of an under-construction building, to be used as institution of minors as provided in the Child Marriage Restrain Act 2013, in Korangi.

Moreover, the bench withheld the recovery proceedings of an amount of Rs34.5 million released to the individuals for scholarships by the finance department though such cases did not fall within the ambit of endowment funds till March 13 on the request of a provincial law officer as he said the payments were made to the children of government officers for better education.

It directed the advocate general to argue the matter at the next hearing whether the government has power to use the amount from another head (believed to be specified for specific purpose) to pay such like amount.

In the last hearing, the bench directed the chief secretary of Sindh to ensure that all such illegal scholarships, not endorsed by the secretary of education and schools education endowment department, must be recovered from over a dozen persons/students as they never fell within the criteria of orphans and poor.

At the outset of hearing, additional advocate general of Sindh Ziauddin Junejo argued that due to financial constraints the government officers applied for special aid for better education of their children, but they were not aware that such aid would be paid from the head of endowment fund.

He further contended that the act of official respondents was bona fide and only for the better education of their children and pleaded to stop the recovery proceedings of the amount.

Shortage of surgical masks

The SHC was informed that a request has been made to the provincial disaster management authority to provide one million surgical masks for distribution in the hospitals and public.

An assistant commissioner further submitted before the two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar that a “Coronavirus control room cell” and a helpline has been created while the federal authorities also set up a separate helpline.

The bench directed the commissioner of Karachi and all the deputy commissioners of the province to start spot checking and verification of all markets of their territorial jurisdictions as to whether any shopkeeper was black-marketing or profiteering the masks and sought reports till March 20.

The bench also asked the additional secretary of health to immediately contact all government hospitals of the province and provide masks to them on their requisition after a lawyer for one of the petitioners contended that there was no provision of masks in the government hospitals.

Three identical petitions were filed in the SHC stating that the health authorities had confirmed some cases of coronavirus in the country and soon after the prices of face masks as well as medicines were increased in the province.

They said that there was an artificial shortage of masks across the country. The petitioners further submitted that it was the responsibility of the government to control the prices of masks. They also sought directions for the respondents to launch an awareness campaign against coronavirus.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2020