Sword of RSO 2000 hangs on one million employees in Sindh

KARACHI: Despite elimination of dictatorial and anti-labour law from federal and three provinces, the sword of Removal from Service Ordinance (RSO) 2000 still hanging upon nearly one million Sindh government employees.

In spite of the completion of almost second tenure of Sindh Assembly, political parties having seats in assembly, especially the ruling PPP are not ready to abolish dictatorial law of Pervez Musharraf, the Removal of Service (Special Powers) Ordinance RSO 2000 from the province. 

This reporter sent a detailed email and text messages to get the official viewpoint and version on the issue to the members of Sindh Assembly, belonging to different political parties and waited for more than four months but no member replied. 

In this regard emails were sent to Heer Sooho of MQM, Shahrayar Mahar of PML-F, MPA Aqib Jatoi of PML-N, Leader of the Opposition Khurshid Shah, and MNAs Malik Asad and Faryal Talpur. Detailed text messages were sent to Senior Minister Nisar Khuhro, provincial minister Jam Khan Shoro, newly appointed law minister Zia Lanjar and strong voice of opposition in Sindh Assembly Nusrat Sahar Abbasi, but till the filing of this story no one bothered to reply to this important query. However, Chief Law Officer Sindh Advocate General Barrister Zameer Ghumro told The News that this anti-worker law was under consideration and would be repealed soon in Sindh. 

This anti-worker and dictatorial law RSO 2000 which has been repealed from federal level in 2009 then from the all remaining three provinces Punjab, KPK and Balochistan in 2010 and 2011 is still intact in Sindh only; Sindh government’s nearly one million government employees are under the sword of this brutal law. 

The law came in force in 2000 by then dictator Musharraf only to compel the bureaucracy and government officials to obey his illegal and irregular orders; dictatorial Law ‘RSO 2000’ which gives special powers to higher authorities of the government to punish and terminate services of the civil servants. 

In Musharraf era, this law roughly and ruthlessly used against government employees and at that time all political leadership including PPP leader Benazir Bhutto had termed this law black and draconian but the party who holds the majority of seats in assembly is now not ready to abolish merciless law imposed by Musharraf, enjoying its absolute powers. 

Constitutional and legal experts termed the situation contradictory to basic human rights and constitution of Pakistan. 

On January 26, 2010, the National Assembly unanimously adopted the Removal from Service (Special Powers) Ordinance 2000 (Repeal) Bill 2010; the bill had been already sanctioned by the Senate on January 18, 2010. President Asif Zardari subsequently signed the repeal bill on March 25, 2010. 

In 2010, the PPP led government had also upheld repealing the RSO 2000 as one of its major achievements in the official book ‘Parliament at Work’ and quoted “the people’s government realized the negative impact of this legislation on the public sector employees and worked with the all parties in the parliament to annul this draconian law. After the repeal of this law, public servants will able to work without fear of victimization or premature dismissal from service.” But the political parties having seats in Sindh Assembly, especially the PPP who are in majority are still not ready to abolish the law. 

After repeal of the law, first Punjab assembly repealed this law and introduced a better law in this regard, then Balochistan and finally KP assembly repealed this law and made better legislation in the interest of their provinces but Sindh assembly did not bother to take proper steps in this regard. 

Official record suggests that on February 17, 2011, then Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah had constituted a committee comprising then provincial Education Minister Mazharul Haq, Law Minister Ayaz Soomro and then parliamentary leader of MQM Sardar Ahmed to evaluate whether RSO 2000 may be repealed as done by the federal government and other three provincial governments or not; and to evaluate the reasons due to which cases registered under RSO 2000 could not be disposed of even after lapse of three years.  

Sources told The News that during the previous PPP led government most of the employees were sacked through the RSO 2000 in the Sindh Education Department headed by Senior Minister Haq, who was also head of the committee and not interested in repealing the law. 

Meanwhile, then Sindh Chief Secretary Raja Abbas sent a reminder on April 25, 2012, to the two committee members and the head, suggesting them to prepare their recommendations, as the matter could be submitted before the next coming cabinet meeting, However, no meeting of the committee was called. 

Last meeting held on December 5, 2012 at CM House Sindh was headed by then chief secretary Raja Abbas, and attended by Secretary Law, Advocate General Sindh and all other concerned officers. According to the minutes of the meeting, whose copy is available with The News, the CS Sindh briefed the participants that the law had been repealed by federal and all three provincial governments and better law had been introduced but due to the pre-occupation of committee members the recommendations to revive the law could not be made. Meeting recommended the parliamentarians especially the committee members to do the needful in this regard, but none could spare time for this important matter.

Terming the RSO 2000 a violation of the constitution, lawyers, laborers, journalists and civil society organizations, have time and again called for repealing the “black law of the dictatorial era” that even does not exist on the federal level and in other three provinces. 

Sources of Sindh government said that the provincial government should force officers of their respective departments into obeying their orders, but most ministers and top bureaucrats in the Sindh government are reluctant to repeal the RSO 2000.