ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — The Supreme Court has ruled that a civil servant’s violence against his wife can count as service misconduct, even if it happens outside office hours and has nothing to do with his official duties.
The court said violence does not become a private matter merely because it takes place at home. It said the dignity of women is a fundamental constitutional value, and that a civil servant’s conduct at home can reflect on his suitability for public office and on the reputation of his institution.
The judgment, written by Justice Shahid Waheed on a bench with Justice Ayesha A. Malik, dismissed a petition from Jawad Abbasi, a cook in the Intelligence Bureau who was accused of setting his wife on fire. He had challenged the Federal Service Tribunal’s decision to uphold his compulsory retirement.
Abbasi had been acquitted in the criminal case. The court said that did not automatically cancel departmental proceedings, because the two serve different purposes and use different standards of proof. An acquittal means guilt was not proved beyond reasonable doubt, the court said, and does not certify a person’s fitness for government service.
It also said a police report alone could not justify departmental punishment. In this case, an inquiry officer had examined 13 witnesses in Abbasi’s presence and let him cross-examine them, and the inquiry independently established the charges, including that he tried to pass the incident off as his wife’s suicide.
The court relied on the Civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 2020, under which conduct unbecoming of an officer can be misconduct even away from the workplace. It found the penalty proportionate and refused leave to appeal.
