After much ado: Health ministry pays salaries of 17 employees

ISLAMABAD:

Funds to pay the salaries of 17 health ministry employees — withheld for the last 26 months — have finally been released, a representative of the health ministry informed the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday.

The representative submitted a report and sought one week’s time to make the payments of cash to the petitioners. While granting time, the court ordered the health official to extend the benefit to all remaining employees after dealing with regularisation issues.

In the previous hearing, Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi had directed Health Secretary Ayub Shaikh to release the salaries of the 17 employees by Tuesday or appear in person to explain the delay.

The case pertains to the salaries of the employees of Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination.

The employees had gone to the court against the non implementation of IHC orders directing the authorities to immediately release salaries and recognise them as regular employees.

The petitioner stated that they were deputed to the ministry from the National Council for Homoeopathy in 2012 to fill vacancies due to a ban on new hiring. One of the petitioners, Shakir, said that 35 employees were accepted as regular employees, but after when the name of the ministry was changed, officials refused to regularise them.

Shakir said that the employees were still working and had not been served show-cause notices or suspended from service.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2015.