ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday reinstated 16,000 sacked employees on humanitarian grounds.

The verdict was reserved by the SC after listening to the arguments in the case, yesterday. The reserved verdict was announced by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, the head of the five-member larger bench comprising Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, Justice Qazi Mohammad Amin and Justice Aminuddin Khan.

The review petitions were binned by the Supreme Court with a ratio of four to one. Justice Mansoor Ali Shah of the Supreme Court disagreed with the decision. Justice Bandial read out the decision in the Supreme Court, which said that there is a sanctity of the constitution which we have a responsibility to protect, no decision can be given that is against the constitution and the law.

Justice Umar Ata Bandial said that the issue of employees is a matter of human sympathy. The ruling said that no disqualified person can be declared unconstitutionally eligible for government service.

It has been decided by the apex court that employees serving in BS-1 to BS-7 will be reinstated to their original positions while BS-08 to BS-17 employees will have to go through a commissioned test in order to maintain the transparency of government organizations.