ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC’s) judgment on increase in the retirement age of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) civil servants from 60 year to 63 years, and remanded to the PHC to decide it a fresh.
A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, heard the KP’s appeal against the PHC’s judgment, which declared the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servant (Amendment) Act 2019 ultra vires.
The PHC on 19th February, 2020, struck down the amendment in Section 13 of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servant Act, 1973.
KP Advocate General Shamail Butt contended that the reasons given by the PHC in its judgment were contrary to the settled principles, adding that there were no grounds available that the law made by the legislature could be declared ultra vires.
Additional Attorney General for Pakistan Sohail Mehmood supported the KP AG’s stance.
He said the grounds on the basis the Act was declared ultra vires were alien to the settled jurisprudence.
He said according to Article 116(5) of Constitution “No Act passed by the provincial assembly can be invalidated on the grounds that some requisite permission has not been obtained before enacting the law.”
The counsel for the KP employees also argued. However, they failed to satisfy the court about the legality.
The bench noted that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servant (Amendment) Act 2019, had prospective affect, and it would not apply to those who after the promulgation of the Act were not in the service.
The SC order observed that the civil servants had vested rights to the Terms and Conditions of their Service.
The bench noted that the PHC had not taken into account this aspect while delivering the judgment.
The high court was therefore asked to examine this aspect and pronounce the judgment accordingly.
The KP government has raised objections against the PHC judgment; whether the Provincial Assembly of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was not competent to legislate regarding the age of superannuation independently? Whether there was enough legitimate competence available with the Provincial Assembly to amend Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servant Act, 1973 by virtue of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servant (Amendment) Act, 2019.
According to the KP government’s appeal, the provincial government had started work on pension reforms since 2016, and the report was also shared with the federal government and in response to the federal government’s letter dated 11/06/2019, the Government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa went on with its plan of pension reforms by collecting the pension data.
It said that most of the Civil Servants opt to voluntarily retire at the age of 45 years by completing the qualifying services i.e. 25 years, while some employees retired on attaining the age of superannuation.
Those civil servants who get retirement at an early age get other job opportunities such as consultancy by virtue of training and experience gained in Government Service, while receiving pension from government.
Therefore, the appeal said, a comprehensive groundwork and analysis was carried out before proceeding with the Amendment, the revision of retirement age will result in saving of approximately Rs18 billion per year for three years, so as to reduce the pension expenditure and liabilities.
The appeal also said that according to provincial government’s intention, that the saving made by it through reforms will be spent on development, health, education, and social sectors to generate more employment opportunities to people. In view of these facts and circumstances the KP government had decided to make necessary amendment in the Section 13 of the Civil Servant Act 1973. In this respect, a proper summary was prepared which was placed before the Cabinet for discussion and approval.
The cabinet approved it and then a proper bill was presented before the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Assembly.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021