KARACHI: Scores of employees of the Sindh government have approached the Sindh High Court against deduction from their salaries on account of contribution to the Sindh Flood Relief Fund (SFRF).

The petitioners, including various medical officers working with the government-run health facilities, submitted that the Sindh government had established the SFRF for the people affected by torrential rains and floods across the province and notified that the five-day salary of government officers from BPS-17 to BPS-22 and two-day salary of the employees from BPS-1 to BPS-16 would be deducted.

They asked the court to set aside the impugned letter issued by the provincial finance department on Aug 24 for being perverse and misconceived.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Omar Sial took up an application of the petitioner medical officers seeking urgent hearing of their petition on Monday and directed its office to fix it for regular hearing within three days.

The chief medical officer of the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi, Dr Mohammad Ali Thalho, along with two medical officers and a technician of other government hospitals of the city, impugned the letter issued by the finance department.

The petitioners submitted that Dr Thalho was also the president of “All Doctors Ittehad” and three of the petitioners belonged to the interior part of the province. They added that their family members and relatives were engaged with farming and facing acute financial problems these days.

They contended that the unauthorised deduction of the salaries was illegal as the respondents had failed to constitute a committee or board for obtaining prior approval/consent of the government employees before making such deduction.

Citing the Sindh chief secretary, secretaries of the finance and health departments and accountant general of Sindh as respondents, the petitioners argued that massive floods had hit three other provinces also, but they had not initiated such an action like the Sindh government.

They also contended that it was the fundamental right of every citizen to help his/her relatives if such natural disaster occurred, but the respondents forcibly and without any consent and legal authority made deduction, they added.

The petitioners further submitted that initially deduction at source from the salaries of all government officers and employees was to be made, but a couple days later the provincial authorities exempted all the cadre officers and staff of the high court and subordinate judiciary from deduction after an assistant sessions judge had sent a letter to the finance secretary against such deduction.

They argued that the National Disaster Management Authority was functioning under administrative control of the ministry of climate change and it had more than sufficient funds for such purpose while the Sindh government also had enough funds reserved for emergencies and natural disaster, but they were not utilising those funds.

The petitioners pleaded to set aside the impugned letter and demanded return of the amount deducted from their salaries.

Meanwhile, a regular litigant on Monday also filed a petition in the SHC and sought directive for the respondents to exempt the employees of municipal organisations from such deduction.

An officer-bearer of the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA) and others had also filed an identical petition last week and a division bench of the SHC Hyderabad circuit court had issued notices to the respondents and a provincial law officer for Oct 4. It also restrained the respondents that no deduction regarding the salaries of petitioners would be made till next hearing.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2022