' TASSADUQ HUSSAIN JILANI, J.--- Petitioner was a Programme Officer in the Trust for Voluntary Organization (hereinafter referred to as the "T.V.O."). He was proceeded against on the allegations of financial embezzlement, misuse of office transport, which led to an accident killing a passerby and for having committed rape along with another person with a young girl in the T.V.O. Office Multan on 25th November, 1997. In terms of the enquiry report he was dismissed from service. His departmental appeal was dismissed and the appeals filed by him before the Federal Service Tribunal met the same fate vide impugned judgment. The learned Tribunal without touching merits of the case dismissed the appeal on the ground that T.V.O. Was established under the Charitable Endowments Act, 1890, it is not a statutory Corporation and therefore, the relationship of the petitioner with the Corporation was that of a master and servant and that no appeal was competent under section 2-A of Service Tribunals Act, 1973.
2. Learned counsel for the petitioner seeks leave to appeal on the ground that the learned Tribunal has not correctly appreciated the composition and functions of T.V.O., that it escaped the notice of learned Tribunal that the Board of Directors was appointed by the Federal Government with Secretary, Finance, Secretary Economic Affairs Division and Secretary, Ministry of Health as its - officio members, hence it was an organization falling within the domain of section 2-A of the Service Tribunals Act.
3. We have heard petitioner's learned counsel and have gone through the impugned judgment.
4. Admittedly the T.V.O. Of which the petitioner was an employee was established under the Charitable Endowments Act, 1890 (hereinafter referred to as the "Act"). The Act stipulates registration/enlistment of Schemes for Charitable purposes to provide relief to the poor in the realm of education, medical relief and the advancement of any other object of general pubic utility (section 2 of the Act).The Treasurer of Charitable Endowment for Pakistan is appointed by the Federal Government at the Federal level and at the Provincial level by the Provincial Government.
Subsection (2) of section 3 of the Act provides as under:--- "3(1).
(2) such Treasurer shall, for the purposes of taking, holding and transferring movable or immovable property under the authority of this Act, be a corporation sole by the name of the Treasurer of Charitable Endowments for Pakistan or as the case may be, the Province and as such treasurer, shall have perpetual succession and a corporate seal, and may sue and be sued in his corporate name."
5. If anyone wishes to donate a property for charitable purpose under the Act or makes an application for the administration of the said property (sections 4 and 5 of the Act) the appropriate Government may issue notification in the official Gazette to the effect that the property in question shall vest in the Treasurer of Charitable Endowment in terms of the stipulations of the application or the proposed Scheme, as the case may be. In the instant case it is not disputed before this Court that the T.V.O. Is an organization totally dependent on the aids from the United States, Government of Pakistan and other donations. The Scheme for Trust was notified by the Federal Government under S.R.O.172(I)90, Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Health which inter alia stipulates that it shall be run by Board of Directors, that its aims and objects are to strengthen non-Governmental and community based organizations to administer and receive funds from the Federal and Provincial Governments, USAID and other donors, that the Board of Directors shall consist of 10 members from the private sector appointed by the Federal Government, three Federal Secretaries (Secretary Ministry of Finance, Secretary Economic Affairs Division and Secretary Ministry of Health), that the Board was to elect one of its members as Chairman for a period of three years and the Board had the mandate of receiving and raising funds and of taking all steps to promote the objects of the Trust in the manner laid down in the Scheme.
5-A. A bare perusal of the afore-referred notification (as amended by S.R.O.698(I)95 shows that the T.V.O. Is not a Governmental organization performing any functions of the Federal Government or Provincial Governments but is a charitable organization established under the Act to promote the aims and objects of the scheme, salient features of which have been highlighted in the preceding paragraphs. The role of the A Federal Government or the Provincial Government in terms of the Act and the scheme is merely that of a guide and of extending cooperation so that the aims and objects remain in focus. The Trust, therefore, being not a "person" performing the functions in connection with the affairs of the Federation or Province its employees cannot be treated as civil servants. In Sabhajit Tewary v. Union of India and others AIR 1975 SC 1329, the Indian Supreme Court was called upon to decide as to whether the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research was an authority within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India and at page 1330 it herd as under:--- ' .....The Society does not have a statutory character like the Oil and Natural Gas Commission, or the Life Insurance Corporation or Industrial Finance Corporation. It is a society incorporated in accordance with the provisions of the Societies Registration Act. The fact that the Prime Minister is the President or that the Government appoints nominees to the Governing Body or that the Government may terminate the membership will not establish anything more than the fact that the Government takes special care that the promotion, guidance and co-operation of scientific and industrial research. The institution and financing of specific researches, establishment or development and assistance to special institutions or departments of the existing institutions for scientific study of problem affecting particular industry in a trade, the utilization of the result of the researches conducted under the auspices of the Council towards the development of industries in the country are carried out in a reasonable manner."
' In Ziaullah Khan Niazi v. Chairman, Pakistan Red Crescent Society 2004 SCM R 189 this Court while commenting on the nature of employment in the Red Crescent Society and whether its employees had a right of appeal under section 2-A of Punjab Service Tribunal Act, held at page 191 as under:- ' ...The Society cannot be treated as a person performing functions in connection with the affairs of the Province. Therefore, the employees of the Society cannot be treated as civil servants of the Province of Punjab, by any stretch of imagination. They cannot invoke the jurisdiction of the Punjab Service Tribunal merely on the ground that they are employed in the provincial branch of the Society. The impugned judgment of the Tribunal suffers from defect of jurisdiction."
6. For what has been discussed above we are of the considered opinion that the judgment of learned Federal Service Tribunal declaring that the petitioner was not a civil servant and that the relationship of the employees with the T.V.O. Is that of master and servant is unexceptionable and does not call for interference. Thus the petition is dismissed and leave declined.