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Sunday July 13, 2025

Dismissal from service: SC takes exception to lack of proper forums to deal with cases of private companies’ employees

By Jamal Khurshid
June 05, 2025
An outside view of the Supreme Courts building. — Supreme Court/File
An outside view of the Supreme Court's building. — Supreme Court/File 

The Supreme Court took exception to a lack of forums for the government and private institutions’ employees against the termination of their services.

Hearing a petition of a Pakistan International Airlines employee against the termination of his service, a three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar observed that there should be a forum established by the federal government which decides cases of private and other semi-government entities’ employees with regard to their termination from service without any delay.

The court observed that employees who were terminated from service have no other forum except the master of servant. It said private banks and semi-government entities removed employees from service abruptly, resulting employees’ challenge to the decisions as they file civil lawsuits in courts due to the non-availability of forums.

The apex court further observed that the civil suits last till twenty years or above and most of the employees die during the pendency of the civil suits. It said there was no mechanism for the regulation of those institutions which do not make service rules for its employees.

The SC also issued notices to Pakistan International Airlines and others and called their comments. The petitioner had challenged his dismissal from service by the PIA in 2015. The Sindh High Court had dismissed his appeal.

Missing person

The SC directed the DIG Sukkur and others to file comments on a petition against the disappearance of a 15-year-old boy from the Sukkur area. Petitioner Zahid Mangrio submitted that his son Ali Asghar had been missing since 2015 and his whereabouts were still unknown.

He said that police had traced persons involved in the disappearance of his son and no substantial progress had been made by the police to trace the whereabouts of the missing person.