Sitting Panel: Sh. Riaz Ahmed, C.J., Mian Muhammad Ajmal and Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi, JJ

Summary:

This civil appeal by leave of the Court was filed by the Federal Government Employees’ Housing Foundation and the Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Works, against a Federal Service Tribunal order. The Tribunal had directed the Housing Foundation to consider Muhammad Akram Alizai (respondent), an employee of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) and initially a civil servant, for a plot allotment in the civil servants’ quota. The Housing Foundation had rejected his application, stating he was not a civil servant and his application would be considered under the autonomous bodies’ quota. The core legal question for the Supreme Court was whether the allotment of a plot in the Housing Foundation’s scheme falls within the “terms and conditions of service” of a civil servant, thereby attracting the Service Tribunal’s jurisdiction.

The Supreme Court allowed the appeal, setting aside the Service Tribunal’s judgment. The Court extensively examined the nature and status of the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation, concluding that despite being a company incorporated under the Companies Ordinance, 1984, it functions as an “official agency” of the Federal Government under the direct control of the Ministry of Housing and Works, and its actions are subject to judicial review by superior courts (via civil suit or constitutional petition). However, the Court definitively held that the allotment of a residential plot in a housing scheme, even one established by an official welfare organization like the Housing Foundation, cannot be claimed as a “term and condition of service” by a civil servant. Therefore, the Service Tribunal lacked jurisdiction to entertain and adjudicate the respondent’s appeal, as the matter had no nexus with his terms and conditions of service.

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