ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court ordered on Friday the Quetta Development Authority (QDA) to reinstate 113 people it appointed in 2013 for one of its schemes but whose services were terminated soon after their appointment.

The apex court gave the reinstatement order while upholding the Jan 12 verdict of the Balochistan High Court (BHC) which had declared the termination orders issued by the QDA’s director general on Jan 24 and Feb 12, 2013, as illegal and of no legal effect.

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim had taken up an appeal filed by QDA against the high court judgment.

Also read: Non-bailable arrest warrants issued for former QDA officers

In Jan 2013, QDA employed 113 people in grades 1 to 17, as naib qasids, chowkidars, gardeners, helpers, drivers, record keepers, tracers, junior clerks, security assistants, accountants and sub-engineers.

The jobs had been advertised in newspapers and appointment letters were issued to the selected persons.

Those who were selected for the jobs submitted their joining letters to the QDA director general. Surprisingly only about a month later, the QDA director general terminated their services by cancelling/withdrawing the appointments letters.

The sacked employees then moved the BHC, which on Jan 12 this year declared the director general’s orders cancelling the appointment letters as null and void.

While rejecting the termination orders, the BHC held that the QDA had validly issued the appointment letters on the recommendations of the selection committee. In February the QDA challenged the high court’s decision before the Supreme Court.

Advocate Raja Abdur Rehman, representing the sacked employees, argued before the apex court that the posts were created after proper sanctioning by the provincial government in its annual budget for 2012-13.

The employees were appointed against posts in the Zarghoon Housing Society Scheme but without issuing any show-cause notice or affording any opportunity of hearing to the employees, the QDA withdrew their appointment letters, he said.

The counsel argued that the stance taken by the QDA director general that the employees’ services were terminated because of non-receipt of the grant-in-aid needed for the project and because they lacked the qualifications required for the jobs was not based on facts.

If this indeed was the case, the QDA should not have initiated and completed the selection process and should not have issued the appointment letters.

Instead of penalising the employees, adverse actions should have been taken against the officials who decided to initiate the appointment process, he said.

He recalled that in its verdict the BHC had observed that the 113 posts had been sanctioned in the provincial budget for 2012-13 and that the QDA had not been waiting for grant-in-aid from the Balochistan government.

Through its counsel, the QDA argued that Rs136.8 million which was supposed to be provided by the provincial government as grant-in-aid was not approved by the provincial finance department. Therefore, the project could not be continued.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2015

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