The Court held that contractual service cannot be included in the definition of a government servant.
Police officers walk past the Supreme Court of Pakistan building, in Islamabad, Pakistan April 6, 2022. REUTERS
ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court held that service rendered on a contractual basis cannot be considered as regular government service for the purpose of promotion, holding that this would amount to an incorrect interpretation of the law and would effectively confer civil servant status from the commencement of employment.
The 16-page judgment was written by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar.
The court held that contractual service cannot be included in the definition of a public servant and, therefore, cannot be counted with regular service to achieve the prescribed length of service required for promotion.
It further held that treating contractual service as regular service would effectively confer on contractual employees the status of civil servant from the first day of their appointment.
The SC said such an interpretation would render ineffective the exclusion clauses of the federal and provincial civil service laws, which specifically exclude contractual employees from the definition of civil servant.
The judgment clarifies that the true meaning and scope of the expression “government service” cannot be interpreted beyond the framework of civil service laws.
Referring to the Sindh Civil Services Rules, 1975, the court observed that Rule 10 clearly provides that the seniority of a civil servant shall be determined from the date of regular appointment.
The court also held that under the Sindh Civil Services Rules, no appointment can be regularized retrospectively from a distant earlier date. The decision follows an appeal filed by Muhammad Saleem Sheikh against a decision of the Sindh Military Tribunal.
The petitioner, an employee of WAPDA, requested that his period of contractual service also be considered for promotion. The Sindh Military Tribunal had earlier rejected his plea to include contractual service in the qualification period for promotion.
