Lahore High Court (LHC) Acting Chief Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed on Wednesday issued notice to the federal irrigation secretary and Greater Thar Canal chief engineer on a petition of 42 contract employees of the irrigation department seeking restraining orders against their possible removal.
The court also sought reply from the respondents until July 27. The petition was filed by Imran Raza and 41 other employees submitting that they were inducted in WAPDA in 2003 and worked for around seven years on various development projects of the federal government in collaboration with the irrigation department as contract employees. The employees said that they were not regularised by WAPDA despite the fact that according to rules, WAPDA contract employees should be regularised after three years of service.
They said that later in 2010, WAPDA sent them to the irrigation department, which also did not regularise them. To make things worse, the officers are being removed from their jobs and the secretary irrigation has given an advertisement in newspapers for fresh appointments on the seats on which they have been working, the employees said. “The irrigation department stopped our salaries in June and we were asked to apply against the vacancies as per the new advertisement and qualify the tests and interviews to remain in service”, they said referring to the foul playing going on in the department.
The employees said that they will be appointed on contract again if they apply against the new posts advertised recently, which will be an injustice to their eight year service at WAPDA and the irrigation department. They requested the court to pass a restraining order against their probable dismissal from service and direct the respondents to clear their salary of June.
Most of these so called aggrieved employees are involved in misappropriation of material and resources from greater thall canal construction project sites. They regularly sell assets like fish, remains of construction material etc illegally at their respective stations of appointments that happen to be headworks of greater thall canal. Government buildings att headworks are provided to proclaimed offenders as shelter, and for sharaab and kabab gatherings. They not only deserve removal but also merit a criminal inquiry and trial.
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