ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday asked the management of the Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) to reconsider demotion of scores of vice presidents as prima facie they had been reverted to the post of assistant vice presidents without giving ample opportunity of hearing.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah had at a previous hearing restrained the ZTBL management from recovering the additional amount which the demoted assistant vice presidents were getting when they were promoted as vice presidents.

The employees have alleged that in a surprise move on March 6, around 150 employees of the bank were issued letters by the present management informing them that the promotions they had earned back in 2015 and 2018 stood cancelled. This decision came as a shock because they had not even been provided a right of hearing before their demotion.

From 1960 to 2002, the ZTBL functioned as an attached government department. After it was reformed in 2002, it was converted into a public sector company whose affairs were to be run by a board of five to seven independent and tenured directors.

According to petitioners, around 150 vice presidents have been demoted to post of assistant vice presidents

In 2005, the ZTBL board had decided to reform the service structure of employees. Accordingly, all existing employees were offered the option to shift from government-style employment terms to more corporate-style employment terms. This new structure was called “Options”.

In 2013 and 2018, the Supreme Court upheld the vires of the Options, providing the switchover of employees from the earlier service structure to Options is demonstrably voluntary.

Petitioners Nadeem Akhtar Malik and others have claimed that through the impugned demotion orders, the bank’s current management has altogether resiled from the 2005 Promotion Policy as well as all Options signed thereunder. This has been done by the bank’s management allegedly in the garb of implementing a Supreme Court order.

The petitioners claim that as a matter of fact the Supreme Court never ordered en masse demotions or recovery of salaries earned in the past.

Also, under the Public Sector Companies (Corporate Governance) Rules, 2013, all matters regarding the implementation of court judgements have to be put before the board. However, in the present case, the management bypassed the board and took decisions which it had no jurisdiction to take.

This is because the ZTBL board, which is a statutory body, is currently non-existent because the federal government has not bothered to appoint one for years. As a result of which, the bank’s affairs are in complete disarray. It is claimed by the aggrieved employees that this lacuna has been exploited by those who are in the SPPC as the demotion order was issued at the behest of SDPC whose members have a conflict of interest as their own promotions will benefit from the demotion of those who had chosen the service structure under Options.

Accordingly, the petitioners pleaded that the Islamabad High Court may set aside their demotion orders and they may be restored to the post of vice president.

Petitioners’ counsel Advocate Umer Gillani informed the court that since the ZTBL management has started deducting the salaries from the employees to recover the amount which they had received during the promoted period and since the matter is sub judice, the bank may be restrained from making recoveries till adjudication of the case.

Chief Justice Minallah observed that the bank management demoted the petitioners without providing them an opportunity of hearing. Subsequently, the court asked the ZTBL management to reconsider the demotion of employees in accordance with the rules.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2020