PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday declared illegal the provincial government’s policy of making reappointment of government employees, sacked by then government from 1996 till 1998, conditional to the present qualification required for the posts.

The bench comprising Justice Ms Mussarat Hilali and Justice Lal Jan Khattak ruled that reappointment of the sacked employees could not be made conditional to the existing qualification as at the time of their initial appointments such qualification was not in the field.

The bench accepted a writ petition filed by around 30 former employees of the education department, including Hazrat Hussain and others.

Advocate Khalid Rehman appeared for the petitioners and contended that the petitioners were appointed between 1993 and 1996 in the education department against the posts of primary school teachers, drawing masters and certified teachers. However, he said, when the government was changed in 1997 the next government sacked them on the ground that these appointments were made on political basis.

Reappointment can’t be made conditional to new qualification for the job, rules PHC

He stated that when the Pakistan Peoples Party again assumed government in the centre as well as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa it enacted the Sacked Employees (Reinstatement) Act 2010 and reinstated the employees sacked from the federal departments without making it conditional to any new terms.

He contended that the provincial government also enacted the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sacked Employees (Appointment) Act 2012, but it provided a different mechanism of reinstatement and named it re-employment.

Mr Rehman stated that under the law a “sacked employee” was defined as a person appointed on regular basis to a civil post in the province and who possessed the prescribed qualification and experience for the post at that time, during the period from Nov 1, 1993 to Nov 30, 1996, and was dismissed, removed, or terminated from service during the period from Nov 1996 to Dec 1998 on the ground of irregular appointment.

He contended that the government had formulated a policy that only those sacked employees who fulfilled the present qualification provided for the post should be re-employed.

He argued that at the time of appointments of the petitioners the present policy was not available and untrained teachers were mostly appointed and subsequently provided on job training.

He contended that on the one hand the federal government had adopted the policy of unconditional reinstatement of sacked employees, on the other the provincial government made it conditional, which was discriminatory.

Meanwhile, the same bench extended a stay order earlier issued against alleged shifting of a polytechnic college and funds meant for its establishment from the constituency of former provincial minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain to that of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.

The bench issued directives to the provincial government to file comments in reply to the writ petition filed by Mr Hussain. The petitioner has claimed that the previous government had allocated funds for the establishment of Ajmal Khattak Polytechnic College at Khattaknama in PK-12, his constituency. He alleged that the present government had decided to shift the college to Nowshera in PK-13, the CM’s constituency.

The bench on Wednesday adjourned hearing of the case with the direction that till that date the government should not shift the college from its present planned site.

Advocate Haider Nawaz Khattak appeared for the petitioner and contended that in the ADP of 2012-12 the provincial government had allocated funds for the project and also invoked Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act so that 40 kanals could be acquired for construction of the college. However, he stated that the present government had decided to shift the project to the CM’s constituency.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2014