The bank must provide paid leave to its employees and align its policies with the Maternity and Paternity Leave Act, 2023
State Bank of Pakistan. Photo: File
ISLAMABAD:
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has been fined Rs 500,000 for illegally denying paternity leave to an employee after a ruling by the Federal Ombudsman for Protection from Harassment, Fouzia Waqar. The case was filed by Syed Basit Ali, an officer serving as OG-1 in the SBP Banking Services Corporation (BSC).
After the birth of his son on April 4, 2025, he requested 30 days of paternity leave on April 10. Her request was denied as “no such leave existed under the existing SBP policy”, although maternity leave is granted to female employees under the Maternity and Paternity Leave Act, 2023.
Ali argued that SBP BSC was under the administrative control of the federal government and, therefore, the law applied. He added that the SBP and SBP BSC “cannot selectively adopt the provisions of the law granting maternity leave while denying paternity leave under the same law.”
The SBP lawyer countered that the bank, as an autonomous entity, is not bound by the law and paternity leave has not been incorporated into its service rules. The arguments focused primarily on questions of jurisdiction. The plaintiff’s attorney presented evidence, including job postings and bidding documents, demonstrating that SBP BSC complies with federal regulations.
In his ruling, Waqar said: “Denying paternity leave to the complainant, to which he is legally entitled as a father, while allowing maternity leave to female employees, clearly constitutes gender discrimination. »
Read: Unauthorized maternity
The judgment imposed a fine of Rs 500,000 on SBP, ordering that Rs 400,000 be paid to the complainant within 30 days, while the remaining Rs 100,000 should be deposited into the national treasury. The SBP was also ordered to provide Basit Ali with 30 days of paid paternity leave and to update its leave policies to fully align with the Maternity and Paternity Leave Act of 2023.
Waqar added: “Refusal to grant paternity leave amounts to gender-based harassment. Granting maternity leave while denying paternity leave constitutes gender discrimination. Childcare is not solely the responsibility of women, and denial of paternity leave undermines the shared responsibility of parents and the best interests of the child.”
The decision further emphasizes that statutory rights cannot be overridden by internal policies and that federal institutions, including autonomous agencies, are bound by constitutional guarantees and social legislation.
“The order categorically rejected the long-standing claim of institutional autonomy used to deny statutory rights. The State Bank of Pakistan is owned, controlled and supervised by the federal government, and the SBP Banking Services Corporation, as a wholly-owned subsidiary, cannot escape the application of federal welfare laws,” the Ombudsman added.
