Notices issued to govt in special allowance case

Islamabad: The Supreme Court issued notices to the Federation of Pakistan through the finance secretary and other respondents in response to Civil Petition for Leave to Appeal (CPLA) filed by the FG college teachers and five other appellants.

The counsel for teachers/petitioners Muhammad Ramzan Khan appeared before the regular bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Yahya Afridi.

The bench ordered to issue notices to the respondents.

The appeal was against the acceptance of Intra-Court Appeal of the government for the grant of 20% special Allowance.

According to the CPLA filed by Assistant Professor Tahir Mahmood and others, Ministry of Finance issued Office Memorandum on 06-03-2013 stating that the Prime Minister approved the grant of a Special Allowance @ 20% of running basic pay with effect from 01-03-2013, to all the officers and staff working in the Federal Ministries/Divisions only depriving the Petitioners who are also entitled for 20% special Allowance without discrimination which is being granted to officers of the same grade and status under the provisions of the Civil Servants Act, 1973, whereas the Petitioners are being deprived off from such benefit due to arbitrary, exploitative, prejudicial, mala fide and discriminatory attitude of the Finance Division.

Earlier in April 2013, the petitioners filed a writ petition with Islamabad High court, the single bench of Islamabad High Court comprising Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui on June 18, 2013, issued the directives that the employees of the attached departments were equally entitled to 20% special allowance.

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

"As the ICA of Finance Division was accepted that’s why we have knocked the door of apex court to seek remedy from Supreme Court, we appealed the Supreme Court by filing a Civil Petition for leave to appeal under Article 185 (3) of the Constitution in August 2018," said Professor Tahir Mahmood, former president Federal Government College teachers association.