Recruitment of deceased govt officials' children eliminates merit altogether: Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s top court ordered that children of the deceased government employees will be only entitled to get the jobs of their parents if they passed away after 2005 saying such practices eliminates merit.

CJP Gulzar raised questions over the unusual practice of recruiting the children of government employees during a hearing of a petition filed by Siraj Mohammad who had asked the Supreme Court for intervention after the Education Ministry refused to hire him following the death of his father.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmad heard the petition. The complainant said the ministry did not hire him despite the orders of the Peshawar High Court.

The additional attorney general informed the court that the PM package applied to those children whose fathers have died after 2005. He said the father of the complainant died in 2000 while the package launched by PM, which promises a job to a family member, came into effect in the year 2005.

The apex court then nullified the PHC’s verdict and ruled that only children whose father died after 2005 would be eligible for government service.

The court ruled that those children, whose fathers had passed away after 2005, would only be eligible for government jobs.

CJP termed it as ‘strange law’ to give employment to the son of a deceased man in his place. Public office is not a hereditary thing, the court maintained while adding that such practices opposed the merit policy.

Justice Mazhar Alam mentioned that the law was made for the children of martyred policemen and other officials while it is being abused and the children of deceased officers are being given the jobs against the merit policy.