SC suspends tribunal formed by IHC

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has suspended the operation of a tribunal, headed by a retired judge, formed by the Islamabad High Court to decide eighty constitutional petitions filed by the employees of Zarai Terqiati Bank Limited.
A large number of constitutional petitions in service matters were filed in the IHC, which appointed tribunals comprising retired judges in each organisation to decide the bulk of the 80 cases pending in the High Court filed by the employees of ZTBL, said Tariq Asad, Advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan who challenged the decision in the SC.
The lawyer said that the IHC appointed Mr. Justice (R) Munir A. Sheikh whose salary etc. was to be paid by the ZTBL and similarly Mr. Justice (R) Anwarul Haq has been appointed as tribunal head to decide the cases of CDA employees. Tariq Asad said that the IHC has appointed different retired judges as tribunals’ heads for the other organisations too. He said a petition was filed in the SC, which was heard by Justice Ch Ejaz Ahmad and Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman, and the SC has suspended the operation of the tribunal appointed in ZTBL case.
The counsel said that he argued that the judgment was against law and the learned judge had no jurisdiction to appoint any tribunal. The tribunal for service matters could be constituted only under Article 212 of the Constitution, he added.
The petition filed in the SC says that the petitioner had served the ZTBL and retired as senior vice president, law. “The petitioner had filed writ petition bearing No. 4345/2014 in the Hon. Islamabad High Court during his service. That the said petition, along with 80 other constitutional petitions filed by different employees of ZTBL, was fixed for hearing before Mr. Justice Athar Minallah on 06-02-2015. The learned single bench compelled the president, ZTBL, to appoint any tribunal/forum for deciding the cases of employees; the president, thus gave the name of Justice (R) Munir A. Sheikh, father of one of his senior officers of the bank as tribunal/forum and the learned single bench appointed him as tribunal and delegated him powers to hear all the constitutional petitions filed in the Hon. court including that of the petitioner and to adjudicate upon all the petitions with respect to the terms and conditions of service. The learned single bench amazingly also delegated the powers of interpretation of SSR 1961 and other rules and regulations of the bank as well which is not within the competence of the tribunal/forum established by the learned Single Bench to exercise such powers not the tribunal so appointed may exercise such powers.”