PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday directed the provincial government to formulate service structure for the employees of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Emergency Rescue Service, popularly known as Rescue 1122, in two months and produce it in writing for examination.

A bench comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Mohammad Daud Khan also asked the provincial finance secretary to explain the government’s position in writing about denial of five kinds of allowances to the Rescue 1122 employees though they’re given to employees of other government organisations performing similar duties.

The directions were issued during the hearing into three identical petitions filed by dozens of Rescue 1122 employees serving in BPS 1-16 positions.

The petitioners also challenged the ongoing fresh recruitment in the emergency service saying in absence of proper service structure, the appointments will affect their seniority.

They requested the bench to stop the government from making these recruitment.

The bench directed the provincial government to continue with the recruitment process without notifying the appointments until the disposal of the case.

Noor Mohammad Khattak, lawyer for the petitioners, said the Rescue 1122 was set up in March 2010.

He said initially, the Rescue 1122 was governed through the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Emergency Rescue Service Ordinance, which was subsequently passed by the provincial assembly and now the law applicable to them was the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Emergency Rescue Service Act 2012.

The lawyer said the wide-ranging functions were assigned to Rescue 1122 through the said Act.

He said since their appointments in 2012, his clients had been facing problems related to their posts due to non-framing of the service structure.

The lawyer said it was necessary for the government to frame the service structure to clearly highlight the issues related to promotions and seniority of the employees.

He said different allowances, including 50 percent adhoc allowance, uniform allowance, risk allowance, fixed duty allowance and disaster allowance, had been given to other institutions like the Provincial Disaster Management Authority but they had not been given to employees of Rescue 1122.

The lawyer said the Rescue 1122 director general had been harassing several of his clients to seek withdrawal of petitions and that he had even ignored the court orders in that respect.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2015

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