KARACHI, Dec 12: The Supreme Court has refused the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited leave to challenge a Sindh High Court order for reinstatement of 20 of its employees in the Hyderabad and Sukkur regions.

Dismissing a petition for leave to appeal, an SC bench, comprising Justices Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi and Karamat Nazir Bhandari, noted in its order that counsel for the petitioner (southern telecom region) has contended that due to the bar contained in Article 212 of the Constitution, the writ petition filed by the respondent employees in the Sindh High Court was not maintainable and the order passed by the court was without jurisdiction.

However, notwithstanding the bar of jurisdiction, the SC bench observed, the petitioner conceded the right of the respondent employees to reinstatement in service before the high court and agreed to the disposal of their writ petition by a consent order. In these circumstances, the petitioner would not be justified to re-agitate the matter before this court. Accordingly, leave to appeal against the impugned order is refused and the petition is dismissed, it observed.

According to the employees, only three of them attached to the Sukkur region have been reinstated in pursuance of the Supreme Court order while 17 workers of the Hyderabad region still await their reinstatement.