SHC sets aside KPT’s notification for termination of 1,200 employees

The Sindh High Court on Monday set aside the Karachi Port Trust’s notification concerning the termination of 1,200 employees who were hired in the period between June 9, 2012 and November 21, 2013.

Petitioners Asghar Baig and others had challenged the show-cause notice issued to them by the KPT management. They informed the court that they were appointed and had been regularised in different departments after fulfilling all legal formalities.

The petitioners said the KPT authorities had issued show-cause notices to employees in bulk which stated that the appointments made from June 9, 2012 to November 21, 2013 had been made on political influences, nepotism, and cronyism and also in sheer disregard of a free, transparent and regularisation process.

The notice stated that no directions had been issued by the prime minister for the regularisation of the employees and that all appointments had been made without fulfilling the requirements for the advertisements and in violation of legal procedure.

Rejecting the contents of the show-cause notice, the petitioner’s counsel submitted that the notice was issued with malafide intentions. He said the respondents were trying to terminate the services of the employees without giving them the opportunity of a fair hearing.

The counsel stated that the show-cause notices were issued on the reports of a fact-finding committee that never heard the petitioners’ version of events. The court was requested to set aside the show-cause notice and restrain the KPT from terminating the services of the employees. The KPT counsel defended the notice and submitted that the appointments had been made on political and nepotistic grounds, and in sheer disregard of the transparent regularisation process.

After hearing the arguments of the case for reasons to be recorded later, the SHC’s division bench, headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, set aside the notification concerning the termination of the KPT employees.