ORDER MALIK MUHAMMAD QAYYUM, J. - This order shall disposes of W.P. Nos. 17713/99 and 2294/2000 as common questions of law and facts are involved therein.
2. The petitioners in both these petitions are employees of Ghee Corporation of Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd.
And have come to this Court by filing these petitions under Article 199 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, praying that the orders of termination of their services may be declared to be without any lawful authority and of no legal effect.
3. Mr. Sher Zaman, learned Deputy Attorney-General has raised a preliminary objection as to the maintainability of these petitions by arguing that since Ghee Corporation of Pakistan has been set up and controlled by the Federal Government, the petitioners are civil servants for the purpose of Section 2-A of the Service Tribunal Act, 1973.
4. In reply, the learned counsel for the petitioners has placed reliance upon the pronouncement of Supreme Court in Divisional Engineer Phones, Phones Division, Sukkur and another v. Muhammad Shahid and others (1999 PLC (C.S.) 1208) in which it has ruled that without corresponding amendment in the Civil Servants Act, 1973, the persons who have been declared as civil servants by Section 2-A of the Service Tribunal Act, 1973 cannot avail of the remedy before the Service Tribunal.
5. Be that as it may, the formidable objection which has been raised by the learned Deputy Attorney-General is that the employment of the petitioners is not governed by any statutory rules of service and as such the principle of master and servant would apply.
6. The learned counsel for the petitioner, however, submits that the petitioners are governed by the statutory rules of service which have been framed by the Board of Directors of the Corporation, according to him, under Section 34 of the Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil Industry (Control and Development) Ordinance, 1973 as amended by Ordinance XVII of 1979.
7. This contention of the learned counsel is ill-founded. Section 34 of the aforesaid Ordinance authorises the Federal Government to frame the Rules. As the rulers relied upon by the learned counsel for the petitioners have not been framed by the Federal Government but by the Board of Directors, of the Ghee Corporation of Pakistan, these rules do not have the status of statutory rules and it is idle on the part of the petitioners to contend that their services are governed by any statutory rules.
Both these petitions are dismissed in limine.