ISLAMABAD: The Federal Service Tribunal (FST) reserved its decision in a case seeking implementation of the tribunal’s verdict sanctioning ‘judicial allowance, ‘utilities allowance’ and ‘car allowance’ to employees of FST Islamabad.
During final arguments, FST bench comprising Dr Nazir Saeed and Ishtiaq Ahmed heard the case. Muhammad Saeed and three other petitioners filed the case through their counsels Muhammad Owais and Ishtiaq Ahmad. The petitioners pleaded the court for interim relief and sought implementation of the FST and courts’ orders. They said that the AGPR should be directed to sanction judicial, utility and car allowances to the FST employees in Islamabad, as was provided to the FST employees in Lahore and Karachi.
As the hearing started, the court took notice of the AGPR absence from the court and issued afresh directives for his immediate appearance.
Following court’s directives, the AGPR rushed to Appellate headquarters and the bench resumed hearing at around 1 pm. AGPR Tahir viewed before the bench that his occupation was as of state’s servant and would follow the directives given by his immediate authorities instead of the court. “I fully honor the court, but executing the ‘implementation order’ was hard to materialize,” he said.
He stated before the Tribunal that allowances could not be granted to FST headquarters employees until the finance ministry allocates funds for the purpose. However, petitioners counsels termed the statement misleading since the staff of the regional office was being provided allowances and other benefits since years.
