Deposit dues of retired employees of PSM by August 31, SHC tells Centre

The Sindh High Court on Monday directed the federal government and the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) to deposit the outstanding post-retirement benefits of the PSM employees by August 31.

According to the high court, the accounts/funds of the federal government shall be attached for settlement of the dues it the federal government failed to comply with the court order. The direction came on petitions filed by Syed Umar Baqi and 850 other workers who had moved the SHC against the non-payment of their gratuities, leaves encashment and provident funds since May 2013.

Their counsel, Haseeb Jamali, submitted that the gratuity and the provident funds of the retired employees had not been paid by the PSM despite the court orders. He said the PSM had leased its land worth billions of rupees but the retired employees were yet to be paid their pension benefits and other dues.

The SHC’s division bench, headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar, took exception to the non-payment of the outstanding dues of the retired PSM employees. The court observed that a last and final opportunity was granted to the federal government on March 5, 2020 to settle all dues of the petitioners and it was observed that if the commitment was not honoured by the federal government, the accounts/funds of the federal government shall be attached forthwith for settlement of the dues of the petitioners.

The federal law officer placed on record a statement issued on May 18 along with a report submitted by the finance secretary and cabinet division secretary. He submitted that the ministry of industries, in order to comply with the court directives, had submitted a summary to the economic coordination committee of the cabinet for the settling the outstanding liabilities of ex-PSM employees who had approached the court and an amount of Rs12.741 billion had been approved for such purpose.

He said 10 per cent of the amount, which was Rs1.30 billion, was to be released in the first week of May 2020 in the current fiscal year of 2019-2020 and the remaining 90 per cent amount of the claim would be allocated in the budget of the next financial year of 2020-21.

The counsel of the PSM confirmed the above position and undertook that the above mentioned 10 per cent amount would be disbursed/paid only for the post-retirement benefits of the retired employees and shall not be utilised for any other purpose.

The finance joint secretary and the cabinet additional secretary also undertook before the court that the remaining 90 per cent amount of the approved claim shall be deposited by the federal government before the nazir of the court by August 31.

The court observed that the nazir of the court upon the deposit of the amount shall expeditiously disperse the it only for the post-retirement benefits of the PSM retired employees after the verification of their claims by the PSM.

The court directed the PSM to cooperate with and assist the nazir for the purpose. The court made it clear that if the amount was not deposited by the federal government within the stipulated time the accounts funds of the federal government shall be attached for settlement of the dues of the petitioners.

The court also directed the federal government and the PSM to allocate the requisite funds to settle the post-retirement claims of all such retired employees of the PSM who had not approached the court also and deposit their claims before the nazir of the court by August 31.

The court directed the PSM to submit within 15 days a complete list of the claims of all retired employees who had not approached the court and adjourned the hearing of the court till September 3.