Daily Times

After Prime Minister of Pakistan, a parliamentary body on Thursday also recommended to increase daily wagers salaries of Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) to RS 25,000 and Rs 30,000 per month while the longstanding issue of their regularization should also resolve on priority basis.

The National Assembly’s (NA) Special Committee on Affected Employees, chaired by Qadir Khan Mandokhail, took up the issue of FDE’s daily-wage employees’ regularization that has been pending since the past many years. The Committee directed the authorities concerned to resolve the issue and report the committee subsequently within three days in light of Khursheed Shah Committee’s findings.

“The monthly salary of such employees from BPS-01 to BPS-15 should be raised to Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000 respectively,” the committee directed FDE authorities.

On the other hand, sources in the directorate, claimed that the issue has some legal complications due to which it has remained unsolved yet, adding that before this some daily-wage teaching staffers were also confirmed by the authorities through prescribed procedure. They further disclosed to this scribe that many other gazette daily-wage staffers are also declared regular through Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) and only issuance of their joining letters is pending.

Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in his first speech on the floor NA had announced to increase daily-wage monthly salary from Rs 18,000 to Rs 25,000 and it was notified subsequently.

However, daily-wage employees’ representative Rabia Waheed informed the committee that the FDE is in complete defiance of the aforementioned executive decision that, she added, is highly discriminatory approach.

Rabia Waheed also told the NA committee those different forums such as Islamabad High Court, Supreme Court also gave verdicts in their favor but no compliance so far made by the authorities concerned.

As per sources, the existing salary of Rs 18,000 to daily wagers also remained delayed which affected hundreds of such workers at the directorate. The matter of the regularization of around 1,500 daily-wage teaching and non-teaching employees of different cadres working at 434 educational institutions of the FDE, had been pending since the last many years.

While the FDE authorities not only failed to pay such staffers since many months but also denied giving them their legal rights as per new ruling of the government, well informed sources said.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government had introduced a policy for contractual employees and daily wagers of the federal government in 2009. A sub-committee of the cabinet was formed to further discuss the devised policy, and the committee directed regularization of 100,000 daily wagers, who had been working in various federal departments and ministries. Many departments reported compliance of this committee’s findings but the FDE still dilly-dallied to act upon order of the committee.

A couple of years back, a three-member SC bench categorically gave a verdict in favour of these employees. The apex court remarked “all daily-wage employees should give joining applications in their respective departments”.

Moreover, the FDE also has a shortage of teaching and non-teaching staffers. As per education experts, if authorities look into the matter seriously these daily-wagers a gap of staff deficiency in FDE’s intuitions can also be filled.