S. ABDUL JABBAR KHAN (CHAIRMAN). -Abdul Majeed Dogar has filed this appeal under section 4 of the Punjab Service Tribunals Act, 1974, in which he has impleaded Government of the Punjab through Secretary to Government of the Punjab, Agriculture Department, Lahore, as respondent.
2. By virtue of this appeal he has prayed that the impugned order dated 20-1-1981, be set aside and respondent be directed to consider the appellant for promotion as Agricultural Engineer in Grade- 18 on the basis of seniority-cum-fitness-in accordance with the unamended Rules.
3. Brief facts of the case are that the appellant joined service in the year 1961 as Unit Supervisor, was promoted as Foreman Workshop on 22-3-1962 and as Assistant Agriculture Engineer on 1-6-1964.
He is working as such. The appellant now claims that he should be considered for promotion to Grade-18 as he was eligible for the same under Rules, 1965 unamended. Hence this appeal.
4. We have heard the learned counsel for the appellant as well as learned District Attorney assisted by the representative of the Department and have perused the record of the case carefully with their assistance. Learned counsel for the appellant has submitted that as the appellant was recruited much prior to Rules 1965 and thus continued working after promulgation of Rules, 1965, therefore, his terms and conditions of service stood protected under the above-mentioned 1965 Rules and the impugned order passed in his case was without any lawful authority. The main stress laid by the learned counsel for the appellant in this case is that the appellant should not be debarred from promotion as he has gained expe--rience in service and has proved his worth on various jobs which he held in the Department.
5. On the other hand learned District Attorney assisted by the representative of the Department, has submitted that the appellant is just a Matriculate who was never inducted into service through Public Service Commission by 1965 Rules therefore, he should feel satisfied with the post he is enjoying. It has been further argued that the jurisdiction of this Tribunal is barred in the case of the appellant under section 4 (b) of the Punjab Civil Servants Act, 1974, as the case of the appellant was duly considered by the Provincial Selection Board alongwith other officers and it was found that he was not suitable for promotion.
6. We have given our a9xious thought to all the proposition so made before us and find that the appellant is just Matriculate with some experi--hence in the Department and his qualification cannot be equated with the Diploma Engineer which was minimum qualification laid down in this behalf. We have also taken note of the high level meeting convened by the respondent with the Pakistan Engineering Council and find that in that meeting only cases of those persons were considered for exemption who had the minimum qualification of Diploma of Agriculture Engineering as well as B. Sc. Agriculture and M Sc. (Agriculture). Only in view of this qualification it was decided in the high level meeting that those persons may be exempted and be allowed to acquire further qualification of Agriculture Engineering. In the case of the appellant, it would be hardly a case worth consideration as no. Matriculate can in any manner at this stage acquire either a Diploma of Agriculture Engineering or further Engineering qualifications, therefore, the case of the appellant was rightly rejected by the Provincial Selection Board.
7. We are conscious of this fact that this Tribunal has no powers to interfere with the decision of the Provincial Selection Board once it arrives at a decision and only course open to the appellant is to agitate his grievance to the next higher authority i.e. Is Governor. In this manner we agree with the learned District Attorney that the appeal is not maintainable.
8. The result is we proceed to dismiss the appeal as non-maintainable. However, there will be no order as to costs.
Anneal dismissed.