ISLAMABAD, June 29: The Federal Service Tribunal on Saturday directed Sui Southern Gas Pipeline Company to pay two-months salary to 178 engineers which the company had stopped over a dispute on the date of their induction.

The tribunal comprising Nazar Muhammad Shiekh and Hassan Raza Pasha also issued a notice to the company asking it to submit a reply on the next hearing i.e., October 14.

Earlier, all these engineers, inducted during the government of PPP, had been retrenched, but were later reinstated by the Supreme Court with full benefits.

However, the company on May 19, 2002 issued a letter to the 178 engineers informing them of a change in their date of induction into the company, and on the basis of it suspended payment of salaries to all of them.

A petition signed by Narain Das, Sibghatullah Memon, Sikandar Samo, Tariq Awan, Altaf Shiekh, and others has been filed before the service tribunal. Their lawyers are, Wasim Sajjad, Akram Shiekh, and Shoaib Shaheen.