The Supreme Court declared void the Prime Minister’s Employment Package and its related office memorandum.
Supreme Court strikes down job quota policy for govt employees’ children, widows. In a significant verdict, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has declared the job quota policy and related packages for the children and widows of government employee’s illegal.
The 11-page judgment, authored by Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, ruled that all policies and packages related to the employment of government employees’ children were unconstitutional.
The court accepted an appeal by the General Post Office (GPO), annulling the 2021 decision of the Peshawar High Court.
The Supreme Court also declared void the Prime Minister’s Employment Package and its related office memorandum.
The apex court also struck down Section 11A of the Sindh Civil Servants Rules, 1974, Section 10 Sub-Clause 4 of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servants Rules, 1989, and Clause 12 of the Balochistan Civil Servants Rules, 2009 in the verdict.
The Supreme Court said that granting government jobs to the children or widows of government employees without advertisement or open merit violates Articles 3, 4, 5 (Sub-Clause 2), 25, and 27 of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court ordered both federal and provincial governments to end the practice of appointing the children of government employees without following open merit procedures.
The court, however, clarified that the decision would not affect quotas already granted to the children of government employees, nor would it apply to the legal heirs of martyrs who died in terrorist incidents.
The Supreme Court ruled that the prime minister has no authority to relax quota rules. It said that good governance cannot be achieved by adopting policies that treat individuals unequally. Recruitment based on quotas, rather than merit, was deemed discriminatory, the ruling said.
The ruling came in response to a petition filed by a citizen named Muhammad Jalal, who sought a Class IV job after his father’s retirement due to medical reasons.
The Peshawar High Court had previously directed that Jalal be given job on a contract basis, a decision that was challenged by the GPO in the Supreme Court.
