The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday stayed repatriation of the female teachers working on deputation under the wedlock policy in various schools of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) in Islamabad, after they filed an intra-court appeal (ICA) against the previous order of the same court.
On November 24, IHC Chief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman dismissed 44 petitions of over 100 female teachers seeking absorption in different schools of Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) in the capital. According to the court order, the teachers who had been posted in Islamabad under the wedlock policy were not entitled to be absorbed in the FDE schools.
However, after the court order, the Ministry of Human Rights wrote a letter to the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) secretary, stating that it would be a violation of human rights to repatriate the female teachers.
On Tuesday, a division bench of the IHC, comprising Justice Riaz Ahmad Khan and Justice Azeem Khan Afridi, heard the ICA filed by the female teachers. The female teachers told the court that the matter was under consideration of the CADD and requested the court to stop their repatriation.
The wedlock policy was evolved to protect a family unit. Under this policy, a married couple is entitled to live and work at the same station.
The petitioners approached the court several months ago against the FDE orders of repatriation to their respective education departments in Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir, FATA and Gilgit-Baltistan. They requested the court to set aside the FDE repatriation orders and allow them to continue working in their existing departments.
The counsel for the petitioners submitted before the court that under articles 37 and 38 of the Constitution, the state was responsible for providing basic facilities, including congenial working atmosphere, to the citizens, he said, adding for the sake of providing better facilities to the citizens, especially working class, the wedlock policy was extended to the employees of private companies.
In response to a petition filed against the cancellation and bulldozing of plot in National Police Foundation (NPF) housing society on the verbal orders of Interior Minister Rehman Malik, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Tuesday, while issuing notices to the minister and others, stayed the cancellation of the plot and maintained its status quo. “The managing director of NPF has issued allotment order to the petitioner after which he upgraded the land in question but all of a sudden the interior minister ordered bulldozing down the construction and suspended the allotments of plots made during the last one year including petitioner’s,” said the petition filed by the petitioner’s counsel, Safdar Shaheen Pirzada. IHC Chief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman heard the petition. The said order had a lot of infirmities and legal lacunas, the counsel added. The petitioner has made federal interior minister, interior ministry secretary, NPF MD and Joint Secretary (law) of interior ministry as respondents. He informed the court that the petitioner, Tariq Abbas Qureshi, joined the police force more than a decade ago and as the NPF was a welfare organization which worked for the welfare of the police personnel, so the petitioner was also allotted a plot measuring 250 square-yards against Rs 0.28 million in the said housing society. “Keeping in view the verbal orders, the joint secretary (law) at the ministry of interior, at behest of the minister, issued a notification dated November 30th, in which the allotment of the petitioner was suspended,” he said while requesting the court to cancel the said ministerial notification. He requested the court to order the interior secretary and NPF MD not to proceed with the notification till the disposal of the petition. After hearing the arguments, the chief justice restrained the respondents to maintain a status quo on the said plot and sought comments from them within 15 days.
