By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday annulled the verdict of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) which declared the act of increasing retirement age of government servants ‘unconstitutional’ after making amendments in the civil servants’ law of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by CJP Justice Gulzar Ahmed heard the petition filed by the KP government against the PHC’s decision.
In its ruling, the top court set aside the PHC verdict and referred the case back to the high court for announcing the verdict in accordance with the law.
During the hearing, the lawyer representing government servants told the court that the retirement age was set up to 55 years in KP Civil Servants’ Act, whereas, the regulation for retirement after 25 years of service was also ended.
The counsel argued that the bill for amending the law had been approved without holding debate not listening to anyone’s stance in the KP Assembly.
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Gulzar Ahmed remarked that the law could not be declared unconstitutional due to the reservations of a few civil servants.
He maintained that the courts implement the laws promulgated by the government and the regulations could not be challenged only through clarifications. All laws are formulated in accordance with the Constitution but not through the rules of business, he continued. Justice Muneeb Akhtar remarked that if anyone has reservations over the assembly’s businesses, then the complaint should be registered on the relevant forum.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan maintained that it is impossible to pass a law without listening to anyone’s stance during the legislation.
Later, the Supreme Court (SC) annulled the verdict given by the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and referred it back to it for making a decision in accordance with the law. The KP government’s move to increase the retirement age criteria of the government employees from 60 to 63 had been declared unconstitutional by the Peshawar High Court (PHC) in February last year.
