Salaries: LHC employees’ plea for raises admitted

Equal pay for equal work is enshrined in the Constitution: Petitioner.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday admitted for regular hearing a petition by LHC employees seeking a direction to the Punjab government to give them 50 per cent ad hoc salary allowance relief.

Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed directed the government to file a written statement within four weeks, and provide an advance copy to the petitioners’ counsel, and adjourned the matter till June 21.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that equal pay for equal work had been enshrined in the Constitution. He said, therefore, the petitioners were entitled to the 50 per cent increase as it was available to employees of other High Courts throughout the country except for the province of Punjab.

However, Additional Advocate General Punjab Hanif Khatana submitted that the instruction as contemplated by the letter being relied upon by the petitioner was not binding upon the province of Punjab.

He contended further that there was no obligation upon the respondents to grant ad hoc relief which could not be claimed as a matter of right.

After hearing the arguments, the court admitted the petition for regular hearing observing that the points raised by the parties needed further consideration.

The petitioner Additional Registrar Riaz Ali Zaidi submitting that basic salaries of government employees were increased by 50 per cent in the federal budget of 2010-11.

He said on a direction from the prime minster, the Law Ministry also issued a notification in this regard.

The petitioner pointed out that except for the Punjab, all provincial governments had implemented the notification and employees of Sindh, Balochistan, Peshawar High Courts and the Islamabad High Courts had been granted the raise in their basic pay.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2011.