ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court has upheld the policy of providing employment to the children and legal heirs of deceased government employees under the designated quota and dismissed appeals filed by the Sindh government.
A SC three-member bench headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar announced a unanimous verdict, ruling that Rule 11-A of the Sindh Civil Servants Act is a welfare-oriented and beneficial provision.
The court observed that the purpose of the rule is to support families of government employees who die during service or are declared disabled or unfit.
The bench held that welfare legislation must always be interpreted broadly and compassionately to ensure relief reaches deserving beneficiaries. The court ruled that if, at the time of a government employee’s death, the children were minors and the widow was not granted employment, the children’s right to apply for a job upon attaining adulthood cannot be extinguished.
The Supreme Court further ruled that its decision to set aside the earlier judgment in the General Post Office Islamabad case will apply prospectively and not to past cases.
Meanwhile, a separate bench headed by Justice Hashim Kakar settled an important constitutional question in a narcotics case, holding that awarding a harsher punishment under a provincial law in the presence of an applicable federal law violates Article 143 of the Constitution.
The case involved petitioner Sajid Khan, against whom an FIR had been registered under the federal Control of Narcotic Substances Act. However, the trial court and appellate court had sentenced him under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial law, which prescribes a stricter punishment than the federal statute.
The SC ruled that federal law prevails over provincial law in such matters.
Consequently, the court set aside Sajid Khan’s conviction under the provincial law and sentenced him under the federal law to five years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs100,000.
In another case, the Supreme Court showed leniency by reducing a life sentence awarded in the murder of a minor boy to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment.
The court observed that the incident occurred during a sudden altercation in a fit of anger, with no evidence of premeditation.
The court ruled that the payment of Rs300,000 as diyat (blood money) to the heirs of the deceased would remain mandatory, and failure to pay would result in the original sentence remaining intact. The incident had taken place on April 7, 2012, in Chishtian.
