ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to review its verdict of declaring the Sacked Employees (Reinstatement) Ordinance Act (SERA) 2010 illegal and unconstitutional keeping in view financial problems thousands of employees can face after its implementation.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, PPP secretary general Nayyar Bokhari expressed concern over the SC verdict, saying that it would create financial problems for thousands of employees who were already suffering due to inflation and Covid-19 pandemic.

A three-judge bench comprising Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Munib Akhtar had on Tuesday declared illegal and unconstitutional the PPP-era law called the SERA 2010 under which a number of people had been employed or given promotion. As a result of the declaration in a 42-page judgement, any benefit that accrued to the beneficiaries has been stopped with immediate effect.

Says judgement’s implementation will cause financial hardship to thousands of govt employees

The verdict, authored by Justice Alam on his last day in the office, says that it is the duty of the Supreme Court to safeguard the rights and interests of citizens since the constitutional rights of the employees who have invested decades of their lifetime in the service of the country have been violated outright through the 2010 Act.

The verdict says the SERA extended undue advantage to a certain class of citizens, thereby violating the fundamental rights under Articles 4, 9 and 25 and being void under Article 8 of the Constitution.

Commenting on the court’s verdict, Mr Bokhari, who is a lawyer, said the judgement had put the lives of the employees in jeopardy.

Defending the PPP government’s decision to enforce the law, Mr Bokhari said through the SERA, the party’s government had provided economic relief to those employees who had been forcibly sacked from various institutions and departments by successive governments during 1996 and 2007. By bringing the law, he said, the PPP had tried to compensate the injustice that had been done to these employees who had been sacked by the governments due to their policy of “political victimisation.”

“I request the SC to reconsider its decision to save the lives of the people,” he said.

Responding to a question, he said the PPP could not file a review petition as it was not a party in the case. However, he said, the SC could make a decision on its own to review the verdict even if the affected employees did not file a review petition.

Mr Bokhari asked the SC to provide relief to the poor government employees like it provided to Prime Minister Imran Khan and other elites, including army generals, by considering them a third party in the One Constitution Avenue case.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2021