THE Supreme Court’s ruling against prolonged ad hoc and acting appointments is an indictment of a deeply entrenched bureaucratic culture that thrives on political patronage, uncertainty and administrative inertia. Successive governments, both at the centre and in the provinces, have mostly relied on temporary arrangements, especially politically sensitive positions, that somehow become ‘permanent’. Officers are assigned the duties meant for higher posts for months, even years, without formal promotion, financial benefits or recognition of seniority. Often there are complaints from those whose seniority has been bypassed because of political compulsions.

Meanwhile, the case of a railway employee illustrates how institutional inefficiency feeds injustice when the state extracts higher-level work from employees while withholding the rights and recognition due to them. The Supreme Court was, therefore, correct to describe the practice as exploitation. A railways officer who performed duties in BPS-18 for nearly eight years was denied commensurate status and benefits because the system failed to regularise his position. The court’s observation that stopgap arrangements are not meant to keep employees under a “sword of Damocles” captures the professional toll such practices impose. Employees serving for prolonged periods in temporary posts remain trapped in uncertainty. Their careers stagnate, their financial progression is blocked, and their future depends less on performance and more on arbitrary administrative discretion. By invoking Article 3, which binds the state to eliminate exploitation, the judgement elevates the issue beyond technical service rules, bringing it into the realm of governance and legal fairness. It sends a clear message that exploitation is not limited to factories or fields; it can exist within state institutions too. While the judgement provides relief in an individual case, the larger challenge lies in implementation. Unless institutional reforms force departments to hold timely promotion boards, fill vacancies transparently and limit stopgap arrangements, similar injustices will continue to recur.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2026