LAHORE: The wheels of justice seem to have turned unbearably slow for over a hundred deputy accountants, majority of them women, as two years passed and yet a Punjab government appeal against their reinstatement is still pending before the Lahore High Court despite a Supreme Court’s direction for a decision within 45 days.

The 103 deputy accountants of BS-16, including 67 women, were appointed by the Finance Department of Punjab (FDP) on the recommendation of the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).

Many of the selected candidates were already serving in different government departments and they surrendered their previous jobs to join new assignments in the finance department.

However, the entire batch was later terminated after five months service in April 2021 when the PPSC withdrew its recommendations in the wake of a paper leak scandal.

SC had ordered for a decision within 45 days

The accountants petitioned to the LHC and Justice Shahid Jamil Khan, who resigned this year, struck down the withdrawal of the recommendations by the PPSC.

The judge had handed down a detailed judgment titled “Chand Iqbal etc versus Province of Punjab” and declared that the PPSC had no power to withdraw its recommendations after the completion of the appointment process.

The judge had observed that the reason for the withdrawal of the recommendations was not an error or omission, but an apprehension of using unfair means, which were admittedly not probed by the PPSC to hold the candidates guilty.

The judge had concluded that the petitioners were made scapegoats by the commission for its own fault.

The government directly filed a petition in the Supreme Court (SC) against the judgement of Justice Khan, who reportedly resigned four years before retirement out of frustration with the non-implementation of his decisions.

Justice Khan was not enjoying good relations with then chief justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti, who retired later, apparently for the suspension of his judgments by larger benches.

A three-judge bench of the SC headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan, who also resigned early this year, heard the Punjab governments’ petition on Feb 3, 2022. The bench remanded the matter to the LHC with a direction to convert it into an intra court appeal and decide the same within 45 days.

However, the apex court also suspended the LHC judgement against the PPSC.

Later, the government’s appeal was fixed before a LHC division bench headed by then chief justice Bhatti, who after two initial hearings in April 2022 kept the matter pending till his superannuation on March 7, 2024.

“Before each hearing in two years, we received a message from the LHC office about rescheduling the chief justice’s cause list,” a female deputy accountant told Dawn.

She said many of her colleagues have now crossed the age limit for government employment, and their chances are slipping away with each passing day.

The hearing of government’s appeal is pending before a division bench headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and next hearing is fixed for May 29.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2024