SC directs govts to pay salaries on time

ISLAMABAD; The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday directed the federal and provincial governments to ensure payments of salaries to the public servants by the first of every month.

In this respect the apex court issued notices to attorney generals for Pakistan, advocate generals, secretary finance and accountant generals, directing them to comply with the court order in letter and spirit.

“There is a common complaint that the state employees are not paid salaries on time”, says the written order, directing the federal government to ensure the payment of salaries to all the state employees, either in their accounts or through the mechanism of payment presently in vogue.

It was also directed that the chief justice’s salary should not be transferred to his account but a cheque should be handed over to his personal staff “with a certificate issued by the Controller General of Accounts and Secretary Ministry of Finance that the salaries of all the state employees have already been paid.

Meanwhile, the chief justice took notice of the botched investigation of a rape case involving a seven-year-old girl in Faisalabad upon the request of the child's father. The victim's father the other day had sent a written request to the chief justice, asking him to order a fresh investigation into his daughter's alleged rape at the hands of their neighbour. The father had contended that the accused had raped the child on October 5, 2017, and a first information report in this regard was filed on October 8. The father, however, alleged that the case's investigation officer Asmat Cheema conspired with the accused and deliberately tampered with the case's only evidence: the child's trouser.

He said that the police did not follow proper legal procedure while taking the accused for DNA testing and suspected that they also washed the child's trouser — on the basis of which, he claims, the accused was able to secure bail and has been out ever since.

The father informed the chief justice that he had also written to the Inspector General of Punjab (IG), who had assured him of justice but the accused and police officials made sure that nothing came of it. Meanwhile, the Chief justice after accepting the request of the father directed the Inspector General of Police, Punjab to submit a report on the case within three days.