Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: In a welcoming move, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday ordered regularisation all federal government contractual employees, including those of the Capital Administration and Development (CADD), and directed authorities concerned to issue posting orders in their respective departments within a period of 90 days.

In a 72- page judgement of a IHC divisional bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Aamer Farooq, the court directed that “all employees, who have been regularised by the government of Pakistan through Cabinet Committee, who have not been given joining due to the restriction imposed by the government and they are only waiting for their posting orders, the concerned ministries and divisions are directed to issue their posting orders within a period of 90 days subject to fulfilment of other codal formalities”.

However, the court said, their appointments would be considered permanent from the issuance of notification or joining orders (in respective ministries, divisions, and departments).

The court maintained that “employees, who are already working in different ministries, divisions, and other departments whose services have been regularised; they should not be disturbed as their cases fall within the ambit of past and closed transaction, subject to conditions that they were appointed in accordance with law in a transparent manner”.

While addressing the CADD ministry specifically, the court said that all (contractual) employees, who have been appointed from BPS-1 to BPS-15, under the control of CADD Ministry against any position be absorbed, regularised against permanent post subject to one time concurrence given by the federal government.

“Therefore, the CADD minister is directed to place the case of teachers, employees and other allied staff of departments under the control of the CADD Ministry before the federal cabinet who shall give its approval within a period of 90 days, the notification in this regard shall be issued forthwith,” the court instructed.

The court clarified that employees between BPS-01 and BPS-15 (working in federal government departments) in those projects, which were closed, expired, completed, would not be regularised. However, the court ordered that they would be given preference as well as additional marks in future jobs due to their experience, qualification and they would also be given age relaxation under the rules.

In 2011, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government introduced a policy for contractual and daily wagers of the federal government. A sub-committee of the cabinet was formed to further discuss the devised policy and the committee directed rugalisation of 100,000 daily wagers, who had been working in various federal departments and ministries.

However, several contractual employees, including 2,200 daily wagers working in the different institutions of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), could not be regularised due to dilly-dallying of authorities concerned.

A couple of months ago, former CADD minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry admitted before the IHC that discrimination was done with FDE daily wagers in respect of non-regularisation and non-payment of salaries of some months.

“I can realise problems of the employees who have been working on meagre salaries for the last many years. The CADD Ministry doesn’t have any problem if the federal government regularise these employees,” he had said in a written statement submitted in the court.

Furthermore, in two different notifications submitted on December 12 and December 22 last year, the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training also confirmed regularisation of 63 employees, who had been working in its various allied departments of the FDE.

Moreover, after coming into power in 2013, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government regularised over 11,000 employees of various cadres working in different federal entities under the same policy.

Published in Daily Times, June 27^th 2018.