PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has temporarily stopped federal government from taking any adverse action against employees of Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) including stoppage of their salaries till further order.

A bench consisting of PHC Chief Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah and Justice Wiqar Ahmad again issued notices to federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments, seeking their response to pleas challenging the ongoing process to dissolve PTB and it devolution to provinces.

The bench directed that the principal secretary to prime minister, secretaries of establishment division and ministry of national food security and KP chief secretary should file their comments within a fortnight in two identical petitions filed by former and present employees of PTB.

The petitioners have also sought interim relief and directives of the court for the government not to take any adverse action against them including not to stop their salaries or to change the pension mechanism of former employees.

Seeks response of KP and Centre to pleas against planned dissolution of PTB

They have requested the court to declare as illegal and unconstitutional the decision of federal cabinet of Jan 1, 2025, in respect of winding up of PTB without legislation of parliament and concurrence of Council of Common Interest (CCI).

They requested the court to declare as illegal the process of transferring/entrusting essential functions of PTB and its devolution to provinces.

The petitioners also sought declaration of the court to the effect that PTB, being a self-generating and self-sustaining regulatory institution and receiving no federal grants etc, didn’t fall within the emblem of rightsizing and the terms of reference (ToRs) of the high-powered committee on rightsizing constituted by the federal government.

One of the petitions was filed by PTB Secretary Fakhruddin and 49 other employees. The other petition was filed by 50 former employees of PTB including its former secretary Khan Faraz and others.

Advocate Aamir Javed and Barrister Saqib Raza appeared for the petitioners and stated that PTB had been established under PTB Ordinance, 1968. They said that the ordinance empowered the board to apply proceed of the cess paid to it for meeting the expenses which might be necessary for performance of its functions.

They argued that it was evident from provisions of the law that PTB was a self-sustaining and self-generating federal regulatory entity that didn’t get any financial support from federal exchequer rather it generated its own funds to meet its expenses.

They stated that federal government, in order to reduce its expenditure, constituted a high-powered committee on rightsizing of federal government through a notification on June 14, 2024.

They said that federal government in its impugned decision on Jan 1, 2025, considered and approved the proposal of the rightsizing committee wherein it was proposed to transfer the essential functions of PTB to provinces and wind up PTB.

The lawyers said that a sub-committee of the rightsizing committee was tasked to oversee and supervise expeditious implementation of the said decision.

They pointed out that Article 142 of the Constitution envisaged that parliament should have exclusive power to make laws with respect to any matter in Federal Legislative List to Constitution. They added that tobacco had always remained a federal subject.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2025