KP Service Tribunal non-functional as chairman not appointed

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Service Tribunal has been non-functional for the last 16 days due to delay in the appointment of its new chairman by the provincial government.

The post of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Service Tribunal chairman has been vacant since October 20 after the retirement of Subhan Sher, the district and sessions judge who was serving as the chairman of the service tribunal.

An official of the tribunal told The News on Monday that due to delay in the appointment of the Service Tribunal chairman, the pendency of cases of the government employees related to service had reached 3,322, with an average institution of 150 new cases every month.

Official sources said that the Peshawar High Court has already written a letter to the secretary Establishment Department on September 10, one month before the retirement of the then chairman, and nominated Justice (R) Hamid Farooq Durrani as the new chairman.

The sources added that the Establishment Department has moved a summary regarding the appointment of the Service Tribunal chairman to the chief minister office for his approval. The sources said that the appointment is being delayed for unknown reasons due to which thousands of litigants are being directly affected.

The legal fraternity of the province has also shown serious concern over the delay in the appointment of the Service Tribunal chairman. The lawyers have demanded the government to appoint the chairman without any delay as the tribunal had been non-functional for the last 16 days.

Zartaj Anwar, a lawyer dealing with the service cases, told The News that the unnecessary delay on the part of the provincial government in the appointment of the chairman had aggravated the problems for government servants/employees whose cases have been pending before the tribunal since long and awaiting hearing.

“Dispensation of justice for the government servants has been halted. Delayed justice is denied justice,” the lawyer added. The lawyer said due to non-functional Service Tribunal, the government servants are filing writ petitions in the Peshawar High Court in urgent matters that had also burdened the high court.

However, he said, in the majority of the cases the tribunal gets a reply from the government departments after delay and the non-functioning has worsened the situation further. Under the KP Service Tribunal Act, the tribunal shall have exclusive jurisdiction in respect of matters related to the terms and conditions of service of civil servants including disciplinary matters.

Under the Act, the chairman should be a person who is or has been or is qualified to be a judge of the high court. However, the tribunal without chairman has become non-functional and members of the tribunal could not resume work without the chairman of the tribunal.