' The facts forming the background of the instant Constitutional Petition are that the petitioner, Nisar Hussain, applied as a candidate to Federal Public Service Commission to appear in the examination/interview to be held by the FPSC for recruitment of 50 Section Officers. The persons as per the advertisement issued by the FPSC who were made eligible for the said examination/interview to be held by the FPSC were all Private Secretaries, Superintendents, Assistants and Stenographers working in the attached Departments which had been declared as such in terms of Schedule III of the Rules of Business, 1973. The case of the petitioner is that he had put in more than 8 years' service with the Government and was as such eligible to appear in the examination aforementioned. The grievance made in the instant Constitutional petition is that he duly applied to the FPSC for appearing in the examination/interview to be held by the respondent/Commission on the form prescribed by it. The FPSC did not raise any objection to the candidature of the petitioner and accepted the form as submitted by him. The petitioner, it was further alleged in the petition, qualified the written examination held by the FPSC but was not being called for interview by the respondent-Commission. On contact made by him with the respondent, he was informed that as he did not have 8 years' service to his credit as a Government servant, his candidature had been rejected and that for the said reason, there was no question of his being sent for the interview to be held by the respondent-Commission. In this background of facts, the petitioner has approached this Court in the exercise of its Constitutional jurisdiction to seek a direction to the respondent-Commission to issue him a call letter for being interviewed pursuant to the written test he has already qualified.
2. Feeling persuaded by the submissions thus made at the bar by the learned counsel for the petitioner, notice was directed to issue to the respondent-Commission, so as to arrange its representation before this Court with a view to putting its view-point before this Court and to meet the allegations as made by the petitioner in the Constitutional petition. Accordingly, Assistant Director, Sain Faqir appeared on behalf of FPSC and Muhammad Akram Javed, Superintendent on behalf of Establishment Division. Learned Standing Counsel for the Federal Government, Ch. Afrasiab Khan had also joined the proceedings at a belated stage and argued the case on behalf of the respondents. The position taken by the learned Standing Counsel on behalf of the FPSC was that the petitioner did not fulfil the criterion of having 8 years' continuous service to his credit and because of this he was found by the Commission to be ineligible to appear in the examination, his very candidature was cancelled. Elaborating his submission as to the ineligibility of the petitioner on account of lack of required length of service, learned Standing Counsel relied upon Schedule III of the Rules of Business, 1973 wherein a list of attached departments of the Federal Government is contained and submitted that National Zakat Foundation in which the petitioner served as a Stenotypist w,e,f, 12-7-1990 to 31-12-1995 was not an attached Department of the Federal Government. Learned Standing Counsel submitted that National Zakat Foundation was in fact a charitable trust which was created under the Pakistan Endowments Act, 1890 and was not an attached Department of the Federal Government. He in this behalf also relied upon an Office Memorandum bearing No,4-1/96/MLD-II dated 21-5-1996 issued by Management and Services Division (Cabinet Secretariat), Government of Pakistan, Islamabad wherein the status of the National Zakat Foundation was determined and it was ruled that the said Foundation was not an attached department of the Federal Government. Learned Standing Counsel placing thus, reliance on the Rules of Business and the ruling of the Management and Service Division aforementioned maintained that if the service rendered by the petitioner from 12-7-1990 to 31-12-1995 in the National Zakat Foundation is taken out, he does not have to his credit the requisite 8 years of Government service and was on the face of it ineligible to appear in the examination/interview held by the FPSC.
3. When confronted with the position thus, taken by the learned Standing Counsel, learned counsel for the petitioner, Mr. Abdul Rashid Awan, Advocate argued that National Zakat Foundation was controlled by the Federal Government and should be deemed to be a part of it. I am afraid, if the argument raised by and on behalf of petitioner by his learned counsel has any force. There are many institutions in the country which are susceptible to various controls by and at the instance of the Federal Government This control over the said institutions by the Federal Government cannot confer on those Institutions the status of a Government organization and on the employees of the such Institutions that of Government servants. An example in this behalf can be given of the Pakistan Television Corporation which is a body corporate created under the Pakistan Companies Ordinance, 1984 and is controlled by the Ministry of Information of the Federal Government. This control over the Television Corporation through the Ministry of Information cannot confer on the Pakistan Television Corporation the status of a Government department nor can the employees of the PTV be considered to be Government/civil servant. Pakistan Television Corporation notwithstanding its susceptibility to various controls by the Federal Government has its own legal status of being a body corporate independent of the Government. Such is the position of National Zakat Foundation as well. It is, as aforesaid, a charitable trust created as such under the Pakistan Endowments Act, 1890 and notwithstanding the fact that it is controlled by the Federal Government, it does not have the status of a Government Department or an attached Department of the Government.
4. As a net result of the foregoing discussion, I am of the view that no exception can be taken to the stand taken by the FPSC as to the ineligibility of the petitioner to appear in the examination held by it for the recruitment of the Section Officers. The Constitutional Petition filed by the petitioner is wholly misconceived and is devoid of any merit and is dismissed as such. Parties are left to bear their own costs.