LAHORE: The district attorneys/law officers working for different administrative departments of Punjab on Saturday approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) against denial of executive allowance.

“Denial of executive allowance to petitioners is discriminatory, against the law and in violation of the Constitution,” argued Assistant District Attorney Raj Maqsood and others in a joint writ petition filed through Advocate Chaudhry Shoaib Saleem.

According to the plea, the petitioners had qualified competitive exam of the Punjab Public Service Commission (BPS-17 & 18) and were working as assistant/deputy district attorneys/law officers in all districts of the province. They have been rendering services on the same pattern as of the law officers of the Punjab advocate general office and transferred and posted like the employees in all other departments of the government. The government has granted executive allowance (1.5 times of monthly basic pay) to all officers of the same rank working with the S&GAD only but the petitioners have been excluded.

The petitioners submitted that by the grant of the executive allowance, the officers of S&GAD had been declared superior than those working with them in the same departments and in the same grade in spite of the fact that the petitioners dealt with more critical matters of legal nature.

They prayed to the court to set aside the impugned notification of awarding executive allowance to selective employees of the government for being illegal, and a violation of fundamental rights.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2019