ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday set aside the directive of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that had restored 68 sacked employees of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC).

In a six-page-judgement, IHC Chief Justice Ather Minallah declared the PAC directives illegal and unconstitutional, being violative of the principle of trichotomy of powers. As a result, the reinstated employees have been sent packing.

The judgement is significant because it was one of those rare cases where the IHC had set aside clear parliamentary directives. Normally, the court exercises judicial restraint in such matters.

Neither Constitution nor Rules of 2007 empower parliament to issue such direction, IHC observes

In 2011, under the then chairman Zafar Altaf, PARC had hired 269 employees without following any open, competitive process. After the issue drew controversy, the council itself decided to terminate all the employees in phases and in the first phase removed 68 of them during the tenure of the PML-N government.

The employees later challenged their termination in the IHC but their petitions were dismissed, a process which attained finality in 2019. However, the sacked employees kept on drawing salaries.

In July 2021, when the IHC issued a contempt notice to the institution, the illegally-hired employees were sent home. These employees included officers from grade-17 to grade-19.

The employees then approached the PAC which issued a direction to the PARC chairman to restore them. In the meantime, the speaker of the National Assembly also issued a ruling on it. Due to the political pressure, the PARC chairman complied with the directions.

However, the parliamentary directives were challenged in the court by Mohammad Zahid Akram, an employee whose seniority was adversely affected. Counsel for the petitioner Umer Ijaz Gilani urged the court to set aside the parliamentary directives. He argued that executive orders issued by parliament violated the constitutional scheme of separation of powers.

Referring to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of the National Assembly 2007, the IHC held: “Neither the Constitution nor the Rules of 2007 empower the Parliament or the PAC to interfere with or give any direction regarding the exclusive powers of the respondent Council under Section 15 and 16 of the Ordinance of 1981. Such interference, direction or order, besides being ultra vire of the Ordinance of 1981 would tantamount to breach of the principle of trichotomy of power embedded in the Constitution.”

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2022