ISLAMABAD – The federal and provincial governments were asked by the Supreme Court on Thursday to ensure Rs7,000 per month as minimum salary in public and private sector of the country, to carry out surveys and to punish those who are reluctant to pay as much.
SC also ordered the establishing of complaint cells in every district for implementing this directive, also seeking report on the same by February 14.
A four-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was hearing a suo motu case initiated on the application of security guards deployed in PTCL. Federal and provincial secretaries of Labor and Manpower ministries and commissioner Islamabad were also present. Counsel for a private telecom company, Muneer Paracha appraised the court that they had contracted with a security company for hiring security guards and were not concerned about their pays.
Expressing annoyance, the court observed that it was the duty of any company to cancel its contract with those security companies which are not paying Rs 7,000 minimum salary to their employees. The court directed the respective secretaries of the provincial governments, commissioner Islamabad and chairman PTCL to ensure the enforcement of the Ordinance of 1969 in letter and in spirit.
