Islamabad:
In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court has decided that the right to compassionate employment assigned to a widow under the Prime Minister’s aid package cannot be lifted exclusively because of her subsequent remarry.
A five-page verdict written by justice sewed mansoor Ali Shah, maintained the Lahore High Court decision, confirming that economic independence was not an advantage expanded to women but a cornerstone of their dignity and full participation in public life.
“We confirm that the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973 (‘Constitution’), ensures fundamental rights of individuals as equal citizens, not as a pendant with patriarchal roles or marital identities,” the verdict reads.
“Women are not defined by the men in their lives; they are autonomous and rights -bearing individuals,” it emphasized.
The supreme court noted that denying a woman’s right to employment on the basis of her remarry is an obvious reinforcement of patriarchal control seeking to subordinate her legal identity to societal expectations.
“Financial independence is not an admission to women, it is the basis of their constitutional agency, dignity and full participation in public life. The law must settle, not perpetuate, the structures that reduce women to secondary citizens in the eyes of society.”
The case came from a respondent’s situation if a man, an employee of the income tax department, died in operation on February 14, 2006.
She was later appointed a lower division office (LDC) on a two-year contract on May 26, 2010 under the Prime Minister’s aid package for families of deceased government employees. The contract was extended several times.
However, her services were terminated via an order dated January 4, 2016, issued by Secretary (MGT) IR-V, Federal Board of Revenue (HRM), Islamabad. The foundation was an Office Memorandum (About) dated December 15, 2015, which found that a widow will be unjustified for compassionate employment by remarrying.
The respondent turned to repression, and approached LHC, who ruled her favor. FBR later challenged the decision before the Supreme Court.
The division bench for the point of point took the crucial question: Can the right to compassionate employment under the Prime Minister’s aid package be withdrawn, only because a widow is remarried?
The judgment dismantles the rationale underlying, and branding the “obviously discriminatory” as it is aimed at widows – female spouses to deceased government employees – for disqualification by married again while saving widows.
