MUHAMMAD SALEEM KHALID vs SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT OF PUNJAB
The petitioner, an employee of a degree college nationalized under Martial Law Regulation No. 118, sought classification as a Head Clerk and entitlement to the corresponding pay scale. The matter reached the Service Tribunal, which held that the petitioner was not a Head Clerk based on the staff list handed over to the Department. However, documents supplied by the Principal and acquittance rolls established that the petitioner was employed and drawing salary as a steno-typist. The Supreme Court of Pakistan examined the undisputed record, converted the petition into an appeal, and accepted it. The Court held that an employee nationalized under the martial law regulation is entitled to the pay scale corresponding to their actual established post. The Court laid down that where records confirm employment in a specific capacity such as a steno-typist, the employee must be granted the pay scale applicable to that post, notwithstanding the rejection of a higher claim.
- Whether an employee nationalized under Martial Law Regulation No. 118 is entitled to the pay scale of the post established by institutional records?
- Can the Supreme Court convert a petition into an appeal when the record undisputedly establishes entitlement to a specific pay scale?
- Martial Law Regulation No. 118
ORDER
MUSHTAQ HUSSAIN, J.-The petitioner was an employee in the APWA College for Women which is a degree college at Lahore. This college was nationalized along with all other educational institutions under M. L. R. 118, w. e. f. 1st of September, 1972. Vide Notification dated 12-4-1975 National Pay Scales were made applicable to the ministerial staff of the nationalized institutions and hence petitioner came to be governed by them.
2. The petitioner was treated as a Junior Clerk as against his claim to be Head Clerk and was therefore given National Pay Scale No. 6. The matter ultimately went up to the Tribunal which found that the petitioner's claim that he was serving as a Head Clerk was not correct because the list of the staff which had been made over to the Department did not show him as one. It was, however, not denied that according to the documents supplied by the Principal, AP WA College, the appellant was employed as a Steno-typist and the acquittance rolls also indicate that he was drawing salary as a steno-typist. Whether he was an Assistant/Head Clerk or not I is not denied that he was a steno-typist. He should, therefore, have been given N. P. S. 8 which is applicable to stenotypists.
3. We, therefore, issued Notice to the Government and heard the counsel on its behalf. He is not in a position to controvert the fact that the petitioner is a steno-typist. We, therefore, convert this petition into an appeal, accept it and direct that the petitioner shall be given Pay Scale No. 8 which is applicable to steno-typists. The parties shall be left to bear their own costs.