Pakistan Print edition: 2026-03-13

Emergency service employees are not civil servants, declares SC

Published March 13, 2026 Updated March 13, 2026 06:12am

4 min

By Terence J Sigamony

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ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court declared that the employees of the Emergency Service are not civil servants and the Service Tribunal does not have jurisdiction in matters related to their terms and conditions of service.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice Ayesha A. Malik and Justice Shakeel Ahmad, ruled on an appeal against the order of the Punjab Service Tribunal, Lahore, dated 07.06.2023.

The respondent, a rescue driver with the Punjab Emergency Service, filed a petition before the Punjab Service Tribunal against the disciplinary proceedings initiated by the department. The Tribunal set aside the proceedings with a direction to hold a regular inquiry and decide the matter afresh.

The petitioners (Secretary Punjab Emergency Service Department and others) challenged the Tribunal order before the apex court, and raised the status of its employees and the jurisdiction of the Service Tribunal.

The Advocate-General, Punjab, representing the petitioners, argued that the employees of the Emergency Service are not civil servants; rather, they are public servants as they work for an independent statutory body established under the Punjab Emergency Service Act, 2006.

The Act of 2006 was amended by way of the Punjab Emergency Service (Amendment) Act, 2021 pursuant to which the Emergency Service became an independent administrative department of the Government of Punjab (Government), which does not make it a typical government department as it is not reflected in First Schedule of the Rules of Business, and further that the 2021 Amendment does not take away its independent statutory character in terms of its legal structure and matters related to employment.

He also relied on the Punjab Emergency Service Leave, Efficiency and Discipline Rules 2007 and the Punjab Emergency Service (Appointment & Conditions of Service) Regulations, 2022, which govern the appointment process, the terms and conditions of service and disciplinary proceedings of the employees of the Emergency Service, arguing that their employees are not governed under the Punjab Civil Servants Act, 1974.

The respondent lawyer, on the other hand, relied on Section 4(2) of the Act of 2006, which originally provided that the Emergency Service shall be a body corporate that can sue and be sued in its own name; however, after the 2021 Amendment, its legal status changed to an independent administrative department of the Government. He argued that, as a consequence of the 2021 Amendment, employees of the Emergency Service are civil servants and they are entitled to seek recourse before the Service Tribunal, and that the exercise of jurisdiction by the Service Tribunal falls within the mandate of the law.

The judgment, authored by Justice Ayesha, said that the Emergency Service is established under the Act of 2006 and employment is regulated under the 2007 Rules and the Regulations. Employees of the Emergency Service are not regulated by the Punjab Service Tribunals Act, 1974 or any of the Rules made thereunder as there is an independent legal framework which governs the terms and conditions of employment of the employees of the Emergency Service.

Furthermore, the Act of 2006 declares the employees to be public servants and not civil servants, whose status did not change even after the 2021 Amendment. In such circumstances, where the appointment and terms and conditions of employees in the Emergency Service are regulated under a separate statutory framework and not under the Act of 1974 or the rules framed thereunder, the employees of the Emergency Service cannot be treated as civil servants and therefore do not fall within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal.

The judgment observed that the Tribunal did not accurately examine the question of jurisdiction in light of the statutory framework governing the Emergency Service and the settled principles laid down by this Court. It said that the Punjab Service Tribunals Act, 1974, specifically provides that the Tribunal has jurisdiction over civil servants, and an appeal is to be filed by a civil servant. Therefore, the Tribunal erred in finding that the Respondent, being an employee of the Emergency Service, was a civil servant by virtue of the 2021 Amendment.

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