PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday directed the provincial finance and agriculture secretaries to respond to a contempt petition against the denial of MPhil allowance to 81 agriculture research officers despite the court’s orders.

Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth ad Justice Abdul Shakoor ordered the respondents, including the two secretaries and director general of the agriculture research, to file their respective replies within a fortnight and respond to the claims made by the petitioners.

The contempt petition is jointly filed by Mohammad Adeel Qureshi and 80 other research officers working against different posts, requesting to initiate contempt proceedings against the respondents and to direct them to implement the earlier order.

The petitioners contended that a bench of the high court had last year declared MS (Hons) degree holder agriculture officers entitled to MPhil allowance at the rate of Rs2,500 per month and had directed the provincial government to offer the same in accordance with earlier notifications of the government and Higher Education Commission (HEC).

Advocate Syed Bilal Jan represented the petitioners.

Petitioners seek MPhil allowance in line with court order

The petitioners contended that the high court had ruled that in a letter issued by the HEC on May 23, 2017, the controversy regarding equivalence of degrees had already been resolved after which the petitioners were entitled to draw the allowance.

They said in the earlier petition, they had challenged a notification of the provincial government issued on Oct 14, 2016, which declared that the qualification equivalent to MPhil was not entitled to MPhil allowance and had requested the court to declare the notification illegal.

The petitioners said the court had ruled that the respondents, including the provincial government, were not supposed to disentitle petitioners from the relief already granted to them and that, too, under the garb of a letter already declared null and void by the court in an earlier judgment.

In the judgment, the bench had also referred to a HEC letter of May 23, 2017, observing that the perusal of the HEC letter showed that the matter of equivalence of MPhil and MS degrees had been settled and it had been clarified that all those who had MPhil or MS degrees were eligible to draw the requisite allowance in line with a finance division letter issued on Jan 4, 2017.

The petitioners said they had been serving in the agriculture department as agriculture officers in different areas and that the HEC had granted equivalence to MS and MPhil degrees on Jan 29, 2015.

They said the finance division issued a notification on July 1, 2016, through which the government employees holding MPhil degrees were declared entitled to MPhil allowance at the rate of Rs2,500 per month.

The petitioners said the government also issued a notification on Jul 14, 2016, to grant MPhil allowance to its employees holding MPhil degree but another notification issued on Oct 14, 2016, declared that those having qualification equivalent to MPhil couldn’t claim that allowance.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2020