Daily-wage school staff await regularisation

Education ministry says matter is pending before Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD: Despite clear instructions from the court, the federal education ministry seems to be dragging its feet on regularising daily-wage teachers and non-academic staff at the federal government educational institutions.

The ministry claims that they cannot do anything since the matter is pending before the apex court, however, legal experts dispute this claim by stating that until the top court suspends orders from a lower court, they remain in effect.

A division bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), headed by Justice Aamer Farooqi, had ordered on June 22, 2018, to make all daily-wage staff in federal educational institutions permanent.



The employees to be made permanent — decided by the Khursheed Shah Committee, had been directed to join their respective organisations within three months.

It had been further directed that the case of making employees from basic pay scale (BPS) grade one to 15 should be sent to the federal cabinet for formalization.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which was in the middle of its electoral campaign at the time, had promised to make these daily-wage employees permanent with incumbent Finance Minister Asad Umar participating in protests staged by these employees.

After being elected, sources said that in one his first briefings, Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood had told ministry officials that he was fully aware of the case of these employees and had again voiced his willingness to make them permanent.

However, an appeal had been filed against the decision of the IHC in the Supreme Court by the education during the caretaker government. The case, though, has yet to be heard and it is unclear whether the education ministry has changed its mind on pursuing it any further or not.

Sources, meanwhile, say that following the briefing by the Federal Directorate of Education’s (FDE) legal section, the education ministry had slammed the brakes on implementing the IHC’s order.



In the briefing, it was explained that since an appeal had been filed in the SC, the IHC’s order could not be carried out.

Legal expert Shoaib Shaheen, however, notes that it was mandatory to act on the IHC’s order.

According to rule 20 of the Supreme Court, it was mandatory to act on the orders of a lower count until the SC suspends the impugned verdict. There are decisions of the SC also present which provide a precedent in that regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2019.