Teachers move SC to claim special allowance

Islamabad:The teachers of federal government colleges have filed a civil petition for leave to appeal (CPLA) with the Supreme Court against the acceptance of the government's Intra-Court Appeal for the grant of 20% special Allowance.

According to the CPLA filed by Assistant Professor Tahir Mahmood and others, the Ministry of Finance issued Office Memorandum on March 6, 2013, stating that the prime minister has approved the grant of a Special Allowance at the rate of 20 per cent of running basic pay with effect from March 1, 2013, to all officers and staff members working in the federal ministries and divisions only depriving the petitioners, who were also entitled to 20% special allowance being granted to officers of the same grade and status under the provisions of the Civil Servants Act, 1973.

The petitioners are being deprived of such benefit due to 'arbitrary, exploitative, prejudicial, mala fide and discriminatory attitude of the Finance Division'. In April 2013, the petitioners filed a writ petition with the Islamabad High court, the single-member bench judge, Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, who ruled that the employees of the attached departments were equally entitled to 20% special allowance.

Later, the Finance Division filed an intra-court appeal against that ruling with a two-member IHC bench, which accepted the appeal by turning down the decision of the single-member bench on June 13, 2018.

"As the ICA of Finance Division is accepted that’s why we have knocked the door of apex court against the discrimination with teacher." said Professor Tahir Mahmood.

The counsel for petitioners, Muhammad Ramzan Khan, claimed that petitioners were civil servants on a par with officers and staff working in the federal ministries/divisions and Articles 25 and 27 of the Constitution required equal treatment for government officials and therefore, they were entitled for such financial benefit i.e. the Special Allowance at the rate of 20 per cent without any discrimination like other such officers.