ISLAMABAD, April 2: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the bifurcation of Civil Service of Pakistan into District Management Group and Secretariat Group was lawful.

The SC bench, headed by Chief Justice Shaikh Riaz Ahmad, set aside the Lahore High Court judgment which had declared the bifurcation of Civil Service into DMG and Secretariat Group as unlawful.

The federal government, and Dr Aleem, a member of the Secretariat Group, had challenged the LHC judgment, authored by Justice Malik Qayyum, after hearing the counsel for the petitioners in his chamber.

The petitioners were fourteen officers of the Secretariat Group, all of them serving in Punjab at the time of filing of their petition.

The petitioners, who had opted for the Secretariat Group in 1972-1973, had challenged the bifurcation in 1995 when they were aggrieved by the promotion of their previous colleagues to the next grade.

The LHC, in its judgment on May 18, 1995, had directed the federal government to treat the petitioners at par with the officers placed in the District Management Group, and allow them “consequential benefits”.

The federal government, represented by Deputy Attorney General Sardar Mohammad Aslam, stated that the high court had no jurisdiction in the matter in view of Article 212 of the Constitution.

He said the petitioners had opted for the Secretariat Group, and had obtained benefits of promotion to Grade 18 and 19, and they were stopped from challenging the formation of the Secretariat Group.

The counsel stated that it was within the domain of the federal government to create service groups and such action was not open to judicial review.

He said that grouping between the Secretariat Group and other groups was reasonable.

Dr Aleem Mehmood, an officer of the Secretariat Court, who has a knack for fighting legal battles with his colleagues, argued that all the petitioners opted for the Secretariat Group between 1973 and 1975, but they challenged its formation in 1995.

He said that all of them enjoyed all the perks and privileges which were available to them in the Secretariat Group.

The moment the judgment of the LHC was implemented the future of those who had served in the Secretariat Group for over two decades would turn bleak.

The group of fourteen officers who had filed the petition in LHC and got favourable verdict, were Anwar Kabir Sheikh, Tariq Saeed Haroon, Mohammad Ashraf, Saleem Murtaza, Aminullah Chaudhry, Tariq Sultan, Ali Kazim, Tasneem Noorani, Shafqat Ezdi Shah, Naveed Ahsan, Yousaf Kamal, Adbul Rashid Khan, Farooq Haroon, and Javed Sadiq Malik.