FST: justice delayed...!

With over 4,000 appeals in service matters from the employees of the federal government and public sector entities pending before the Federal Service Tribunal for the past several years, something will certainly appear to have gone amiss somewhere.
And as recent newspaper reports suggest, the predicament of such a large number of employees, adversely affected on this count, is traceable to protracted delay in filling the empty seats on the benches of the Tribunal.
According to one report, the backlog of appeals at the Karachi bench has become more conspicuous, as compared to others.
The problem at this bench is reported to have arisen in October last year, from the retirement of two of its three members, both having been former district and sessions judges.
The inordinate delay in filling the vacancies thus caused, is believed to have occurred due to a combination of two factors.
This has reference to the perception of enhanced prestige the post has lately come to acquire from handling of a number of high profile cases, on the one hand, and too many aspirants believed to be chasing too few seats, on the other.
As such, besides other considerations, the appointment of an FTC member appears to have acquired a political dimension as well.
It is the President who appoints the tribunal members on the recommendation of the Prime Minister.
As such, there should remain little to doubt about the complications likely to arise in its way.
For one thing, now that an elected Prime Minister is in office with all its paraphernalia, the pressure on the incumbent should become self-evident.
Little to wonder about a newspaper report pointing to some kind of a race going on among a number of retired bureaucrats from various services for the high prestige slot.
The report under reference also has it that about a dozen names for the jobs are believed to be under consideration and that a summary, in this regard, is stated to by lying with the Prime Minister.
Viewed in this perspective, the procrastination can be linked to the tradition of political manoeuvring that usually goes with such matters.
However, since FST is there solely to deal with the grievances of the federal government employees, effective measures need to be taken to ensure that it is not handicapped with circumstances impeding redress to grievances of a class of people on whose contentment the government has to depend for the implementation of its policies. If for any reason, the government cannot increase the number of FST benches, it can and should at least promptly fill the vacancies to reduce the pile of pending petitions.
For short of it, the resulting delay in justice may be seen as denial of justice at one and the same time.