LAHORE, Sept 14: The decision to hold a suitability test of over 4,000 employees of the Pakistan Railways is not in conformity with any law of the land, according to a former chairman of railways. “There is no such precedent in any department of the government. It is also negation of the law of the natural justice which says ‘no one condemned unheard.’

The affected employees had not been told under which terms and conditions of service they had been directed to appear in the test, the ex-chairman told Dawn on Wednesday.

If a certain right had been accrued in favour of an individual, such a right could not be withdrawn. This meant that any right accrued to an individual could not be rescinded to his disadvantage, he said.

He said there were two categories of employees in the railways — ministerial staff and workers — and the laws governing both had no provision of any such test.

“The Civil Servants Act 1973 is applicable to the ministerial staff, the people who work at the PR headquarters, at the offices of all the divisional superintendents etc.

“The employees who work on the open line, at the Mughalpura workshops, cement and locomotive factories fall in the category of workers and are governed by the PR Establishment Code 1935 and the Compensation Act 1923 and the Factory Act 1934.”

He said the Advance Chapter I of the PR personnel manual was very clear about it. “The services of employees who fall in the workers category stand regularized after completion of one-year service since their appointment.

“Furthermore, the laws merely say every employee should have periodical refresher courses and there is no provision or clause of suitability test,” he said.

The ex-chairman said it seemed that the railway administration had either taken the decision in haste or under political influence.