Islamabad High Court (IHC) has issued notices to the heads of different ministries seeking parawise replies from them within two weeks in the case of non-regularisation of thousands of contract employees.
The court has warned if its orders are not implemented the heads and secretaries of respective departments will have to appear before it in person.
A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Athar Minullah took up for hearing regularisation of contract employees of ministries case Thursday.
Muhammad Shabir Ahmad Bhutta, Ali Murad Baloch, Shoaib Shaheen, Niaz Ullah Niazi, Waqas Malik and other counsels for the petitioners appeared in the court.
The counsels for the petitioners told the court a cabinet sub-committee headed by Syed Khurshid Shah was constituted during the previous government. The committee had issued orders for regularisation of contract employees of different scales from grade 1 to grade 17 but the respective departments have not regularised these thousands of contract employees so far in defiance of court’s orders, they pleaded.
Shabbir Ahmad Bhutta advocate told that the petitioners Sajid Ahmad Mehr is gazetted officer and is working in Ministry of Commerce and Shakila Fayyaz and Laeeq Ahmad are working in Intelligence Bureau and they along with other hundreds of employees are not being regularised. He further told the court Justice Riaz Ahmad Khan of IHC had issued orders for regularization of all these contract employees but no practical steps have been taken in this regard by the respective departments.
The court while dividing these employees in three categories issued orders to the heads of different ministries to file parawise comments before it.
Category includes those employees whose cases were sent to cabinet sub-committee but they have not been regularised so far. The second category comprises those employees whose cases are sub-judice in the courts and they have not been decided so far. Third category includes regularisation and promotion cases.
The counsels for the petitioners argued that contempt of court petitions have also been filed against heads and secretaries of different ministries on non implementation of IHC single bench decision and they include ministry of CAD, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Education and Secretary Establishment Division.
They told the court that a 2-member bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi and Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi had issued orders for regularization of about 150,000 contract employees.
