LAHORE: The Lahore High Court held that the 20 percent Secretariat Allowance (SA) of civil secretariat employees is not admissible to officials on deputation or posted by transfer outside the secretariat including attached departments, field formations and autonomous bodies.
The court passed this order in an Intra-Court Appeal (ICA) of Imtiaz Ahmed an employee of Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC) working on deputation with the Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Tevta).
A single bench of the LHC in its order said that the grievance of the appellant was addressed in a notification issued by the Finance Department wherein it has been mentioned that the SA at the rate of 20% of basic pay granted only to the employees of Punjab civil secretariat.
As the appellant is not employed in the civil secretariat, therefore, he is not entitled to the allowance, the single bench added.
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The appellant’s counsel contended that the impugned order of the single bench had been passed without appreciating the material available on record.
He claimed that the appellant denied SA which had been granted to other employees of the PSIC.
He said that denying of said allowance to the appellant, who is employee of PSIC, amounts to discrimination.
The counsel of Tevta contended that the Punjab government promulgated the Punjab Technical and Vocational Training Ordinance and transferred the administrative control, assets, and liabilities of various PSIC projects to Tevta.
He said the appellant no longer remained a Psic employee and could not claim discrimination.
Moreover, the representation of Tevta requesting for sanction of SA for Psic employees has been turned down by the Finance Department on the ground that SA is permissible to the employees of the civil secretariat only, the counsel added.
The court dismissed the petition and observed that there is no ground to interfere in the impugned order passed by the single bench.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025