court employee Reviews & Complaints
By: Muhammad Ashraf
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court employee
Thousands of staff members of the Sindh judicial department, ranging from grades 10 to 15, have been waiting for the past 27 years for their salaries and ranks to be upgraded. This long delay has been caused because Sindh finance department has lost the file of these Clerks of the Court, Nazirs and Readers of the department, The News has learnt.
On July 6, 1982, the Sindh finance secretary and the Section Officer (SR-II) issued a notification (No FD(SR.II) 1454/71(Vol. IV)), addressing the District and Sessions Judges in Sindh. The notification was captioned “grant of notice seeking possession (NSP) 11 to all assistants of Grade 10 in the Sindh secretariat and non-secretariat.” The finance department failed to communicate this notification to the judicial department resulting in no change in the cadres of clerks, nazirs and readers. Consequently, these lower tier staff members of the Sindh judiciary department are currently working on Basic Pay Scale-8 (BPS-8).
The News contacted the Sindh High Court (SHC) Registrar for his point of view on the issue. The registrar referred the matter to another senior SHC staff member who had taken charge only a few days ago, and said that he would surely look into the matter after going through the relevant files. The case, however, has not been taken up thus far.
When the Sindh finance department was approached, the blame game started; other departments were held responsible and the issue remains unresolved.
It is pertinent to mention here that, in the judiciary, clerks, Nazirs and readers are equal in rank to the cadre of assistants in all other government departments — all are on BPS-10. While assistants in other departments have been upgraded, the cadres in the judicial department, due to not being mentioned in the notifications which mentioned other BPS-10 cadres, remain placed in BPS-10.
Meanwhile, the deputy finance secretary (SR-1) issued another notification (No. FD(SR.IV) -2/62/77 (COC)) on August 8, 1991, which stated: “The clerks of the court have been upgraded from BPS 11 to BPS 15 in the District and Sessions Judges in Sindh”. This notification, however, has also not been implemented; and clerks, nazirs and readers remain unprivileged because the prior notification dated July 6, 1982, was not executed. This notification does not mention the cadre of nazirs.
Interestingly, Sindh finance department’s secretary issued another notification, dated March 12, 1987 (No. FD (SR IV) 2(62)77), which states that readers have been upgraded from BPS-8 to BPS-10 in the District and Sessions courts of Sindh. This notification was implemented but the other notification regarding upgarding from BPS-10 to BPS-11 is not available in the finance department’s records.
Sources revealed that the court staff had contacted the finance department for the missing file but the latter failed to give any reason for the missing file. The file, with notification No. FD (SR-IV) 2-70/2007 issued by the deputy finance secretary had orders of upgrading BPS-11 assistants and head clerks to BPS-14.
After failing to get any satisfactory reply, the staff of the judiciary submitted a letter to former Sindh chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim and the incumbent Sindh CM Qaim Ali Shah, along with the copies of the notifications that were issued. The CMs were requested to look into the matter personally and direct the department concerned to issue the necessary notification for upgrading clerks and nazirs from BPS-10 to BPS-15 and upgrading readers from BPS-10 to BPS-14.
In a written letter, they also submitted that clerks, readers and nazirs of the Sindh judicial department are equal in rank to cadres of assistant of all other government department but the finance department issued a notification which mentioned the cadres of assistant or head clerk but omitted any mention of clerks, readers and nazirs. Therefore, the notification was not implemented in the judicial branch in Sindh.
In their written complaint, they asked whether the finance department holds any grievance against the judicial staff or the judiciary, as they had not mentioned the cadres of the judicial department in the notification, and due to this discrepancy, the staff of the judicial department is suffering.