ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has set aside the directions of the parliamentary panel for the restoration of hundreds of sacked employees in various departments of the federal government.

IHC Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani was hearing the petitions filed against the directions of a special committee of the National Assembly headed by former MNA Qadir Khan Mandokhel that ordered the reinstatement of the sacked employees of the Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution (EOBI), Pakistan Steel Mills, the Capital Development Authority, the Ministry of Education as well as the National Assembly among others.

During the course of arguments, Syed Ishfaq Hussain Naqvi, counsel for secretary of the Overseas Pakistani and Human Resource Development, argued that the special panel had given multiple directions with reference to the daily wagers, contractual and project employees for their regularisation in violation of settled principles of law.

The counsel said that the special committee gave directions to the senior officials of the EOBI, OPF secretary, the education ministry and Federal Directorate of Education, to go by the recommendations, failing which further actions were recommended with direction to the DG of the FIA for initiation of an inquiry and departmental actions for removal of those officials.

Says committee exceeded its mandate, recommendations have no legal effect

Advocate Naqvi pointed out that the mandate of the special committee was limited and its nature was advisory according to rules and the committee had no authority to implement recommendations by forcing executives to implement contrary to the legal position as well as decisions made by the high courts and the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The lawyer representing the NA secretariat said the court lacked jurisdiction to proceed against the Special Committee of National Assembly in terms of Article 69, nor internal proceedings can be called into question in the constitutional jurisdiction.

He argued all the writ petitions were not maintainable.

The assistant attorney general contended that the government would not support the recommendations given by the National Assembly Special Committee headed by Qadir Khan Mandokhel as all those directions and recommendations were against the law. The lawyer said the recommendations were not even placed before the competent forum.

The court observed that it cannot “close our eyes from the legislative procedure provided in Article 70”.

“Under the law the mandate of the committee was limited only to make recommendations to the house, but instead the committee started giving directions to the state-owned enterprises in the Pakistan Steel Mill case, and extended show-cause notice to the concerned employees,” the court order said, adding that “in the case of the CDA, a special committee was notified on Oct 12, 2022, to examine the cases of employees who were terminated due to the declaration of the Sacked Employees (Reinstatement) Act 2010”.

The court observed that the committee started giving the directions to the EOBI to reinstate 358 employees who were terminated in compliance with the Supreme Court’s judgement.

However, the special committee ordered the director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to initiate an inquiry against the officials of the EOBI, including the chairman and issued show-cause notices to the officials of other ministries.

“The committee had admittedly trespassed its mandate and made certain observations against senior officials by issuing directions to issue show-cause [notices] to the FIA authorities for criminal proceedings, which are not covered within four corners of law,” the court further observed. Justice Kayani ruled that “the recommendations have no legal effect” and declared them as “void.”

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2023