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Police officers walk past the Supreme Court of Pakistan building, in Islamabad, Pakistan April 6, 2022. REUTERS
ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court of Pakistan has ruled that employees of Punjab Emergency Service Rescue 1122 are not civil servants.
In a judgment authored by Justice Ayesha A Malik, the court set aside the Punjab Service Tribunal’s order and allowed the government’s appeals.
The court held that Rescue 1122 employees fall within the category of public servants but do not meet the legal definition of civil servants.
It further ruled that merely because an institution functions as a government department does not automatically make its employees civil servants.
The judgment noted that Rescue 1122 employees are governed under a separate legal framework and the Punjab Emergency Service Rules 2007.
Even after amendments introduced in 2021, the Punjab Emergency Service continues to operate as an autonomous statutory body. The court concluded that the Service Tribunal does not have jurisdiction to hear cases related to employees of the emergency service. Recently, the SC also held that employees of Cantonment Boards are not civil servants.
