GOVERNMENT OF KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA vs SHAHZAD IQBAL Ss — 2021 SCMR 673 SUPREME-COURT

Fields are extracted from the reported citation and judgment text. Where a detail is not stated in the record, it is not shown.

GOVERNMENT OF KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA VS SHAHZAD IQBAL Ss. 2(b) & 3---Project employees seeking regularization in service---Respondents were appointed on contractual basis in Provincial Skill Development Centers by the Technology Up Gradation and Skill Development Company (TUSDEC), a fully owned subsidiary company of the Pakistan Industrial Development Cooperation (PIDC)---Subsequently, the project was handed over to the Provincial Government, which upon taking charge of the said project advertised various posts for making ad hoc appointments---Respondents did not apply for the said advertised appointments and instead filed constitutional petitions before the High Court seeking regularization in service---Held, that where a project employee was recruited by a Company for a definite period of time, such an employee did not under any circumstances either directly or by implication become an employee of the provincial government---Cases of the respondents clearly fell outside the ambit of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Employees (Regularization of Services) Act, 2009 ('the 2009 Act') as they were all hired against project posts by TUSDEC and the project itself was to be executed by the Company under the control of the Federal Government for a requisite period of time before it was handed over to the Provincial Government---For the 2009 Act to apply, it was the Provincial Government that must employ the individual---Qualitative and conceptual difference existed between contract employees covered by the provisions of the 2009 Act and the temporary employees hired by TUSDEC during the time they operated the project before handing it over to the provincial government---Such employees could not by any stretch of the language be termed or treated as employees hired by the Provincial Government---In such circumstances, the benefit of the 2009 Act was not available to the respondents---Even otherwise, being project employees, the respondents were excluded from the benefits of the 2009 Act by virtue of S. 2(b)---High Court erred in law by concluding that the benefit of regularization was available to the respondents---Appeals were allowed and impugned judgment of High Court was set-aside.

GOVERNMENT OF KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA vs SHAHZAD IQBAL Ss — 2021 SCMR 673 SUPREME-COURT

Case information

Judgment text as reported

Other judgments reported in 2021 SCMR