ISLAMABAD: Former Chief Justice Saqib Nisar had asked the Finance Ministry to defreeze special judicial allowance for all employees of the apex court but the ministry avoided to do it and had conveyed to the SC that the CJP could do it while exercising financial powers delegated to him earlier.The Finance Ministry, which was formally asked to consider the defreezing of the allowance in the case of SC employees, considered the request and found that such an exception for the employees of the apex court would open Pandora Box as various other organisations would also be demanding the same dispensation from the ministry.It was also noted by the ministry that such a favour to Supreme Court of Pakistan would lead to a precedence causing discrimination in which the federal government would have to follow a lengthy litigation in the courts.In the light of these discussions, the Finance Ministry while referring to past notification conveyed to the Supreme Court that the honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan has the financial power to sanction expenditure on any item from within the allocated budget of the apex court. “Supreme Court of Pakistan may take further action in the light of above mentioned delegated financial powers,” the official communication addressed to SC’s Deputy Registrar said.A day before his retirement, the former Chief Justice Saqib Nisar had allowed all employees of the Supreme Court special allowance equal to three times initial basic pay of the Pay scale 2017.A notification issued by the Supreme Court on 16th January 2019 had announced that this special raise in the salary of all the employees from BS-1-22 of the Supreme Court of Pakistan would be applicable with effect from January 1, 2019.The notification unfreezes for the Supreme Court employees the Special Allowance which was admissible equal to three time initial pay of the Pay Scale 2008.However, for other categories of government servants including those serving in armed forces, FBR, Presidency, Prime Minister’s Secretariat, FIA, IB etc such allowances will remain frozen to Pay Scales of 2008 and 2011.According to the notification: “In pursuance of Finance Division’s U.O.No.5(1)-R-3/2018 dated 29.06.2018, in response to this Court’s letter of even number dated 06.06.2018, the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan, having exercised powers in terms of Finance Division’s (Expenditure Wing) OM No.F.1(5)R.12/81 dated 24th November 1993 read with Rule 4 of the Supreme Court Establishment Service Rules, 2015, has been pleased to unfreeze Special Judicial Allowance which was admissible equal to three times initial basic pay of the Pay Scale 2008 to the employees (BPS 1-22) of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and allowed them to draw the revised Special Judicial Allowance with effect from 01.01.2019 equal to three times initial basic pay of the Pay Scale 2017.”Official documents show that the Finance Secretary was formally approached on 6th June, 2018 by Deputy Registrar SC to convey, “Finance Division revised the basic pay scales in the years 2011, 2015, 2016 & 2017 however, the said allowance was kept frozen at the level of its admissibility as per Pay Scale of year 2008.” The SC added, “The decision of the Finance Division to consistently keeping the Special Judicial Allowance frozen at the level of Basic Scales of 2008 is not only against the initial sanction of this allowance by the Prime Minister but also in contradiction at the very spirit and objection of the NJPMC’s (National Judicial Policy Making Committee) decision. Further, due to constant increase in inflation on yearly basis since 2008, the rate of special judicial allowance needs to be revisited also.”The SC’s letter to Finance Secretary also noted, “It may be worth mentioning that government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa vide their Notification No…… and government of Sindh vide their Officer Memorandum No ….. have defrozen the capped Special Judicial Allowance admissible to the employees of the provincial judiciaries of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh wef 01.07.2016 & 01.07.2018 respectively.”After presenting this background, the Finance Minister was told, “Keeping in view of the above, the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan has been pleased to order that Finance Division, Government of Pakistan, Islamabad should look into the matter and consider to defreeze the rate of Special Judicial Allowance admissible to the employees of this Court (BS-1 to BS-22) @ 3x initial Basic Pay of 2017 wef 01.07.2018…….”The Finance Ministry after considering the SC’s request, decided not to issue any instructions for defreezing any allowance, which were frozen as a policy decision. The Ministry instead conveyed to apex court that Chief Justice of Pakistan can do by using the financial powers delegated to the Supreme Court.
from The News International - National http://bit.ly/2sVA65u
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