In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court has upheld the promotion rights of married government employees, allowing them to change their domiciles without jeopardizing their career progression.
The ruling ensures that women civil servants, in particular, can now adopt their spouse’s domicile and still be eligible for promotions and appointments under provincial quotas. The apex court clarified that such domicile changes will not impact quota entitlements.
The verdict was delivered by a two-member Supreme Court bench consisting of Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi. The case stemmed from a petition filed by Dr. Shumaila Naeem, a gold medallist and medical officer, who originally joined public service on a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) domicile. After marrying a civil servant from Balochistan, she legally shifted her domicile to her husband’s province.
Dr. Naeem later applied for a BPS-19 Associate Professor post (Obstetrics and Gynaecology) at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad, based on her new Balochistan domicile. Although she topped the written examination conducted by the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), she was denied an interview because her original domicile was from KP.
Dr. Naeem told Dawn that the FPSC rejected both her departmental appeal and review petition. However, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) accepted her appeal in January 2025, ruling in her favor. Instead of enforcing the IHC verdict, the FPSC challenged it in the Supreme Court.
The top court reaffirmed that married women are legally entitled to either retain their original domicile or adopt their spouse’s. In Dr. Naeem’s case, her decision to switch to a Balochistan domicile was deemed valid, and the court dismissed the FPSC’s objections. It ordered that she be reconsidered for the vacant post within two weeks.
“This judgment sets an important precedent,” Dr. Naeem said, adding that it would now allow married women in government service to work in the same province as their spouses without fear of losing promotion opportunities.
She noted that previously, many female officers had been forced to serve in different regions from their husbands due to domicile constraints, disrupting family life. The Supreme Court’s decision, she emphasized, would bring relief to countless families in public service