LHC protects right to maternity leave

Lahore High Court Justice (LHC) Tariq Saleem Sheikh rejected the Punjab Workers Welfare Board’s (PWWB) stance of not granting maternity leave to women working on contract, observing that women’s rights could not be denied under the garb of Policies.

“Maternity leave for working women is essential for safe motherhood. It is the basic element of protection”, Justice Saleem observed. “Safe motherhood is the fundamental right of every woman and the right to maternity leave, being its subset, has the same status and should be reckoned as such”, he added in a judgment issued on Thursday.

Shedding light over the right to safe motherhood, Justice Saleem observed that maternity is not a disease but a social function. “It is the means by which the human species is propagated. Pregnancy and childbirth are a privileged function of a woman and essential for the survival of our species.”

According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, approximately 810 young women die every day from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. In 2017, around 295,000 women died during pregnancy and childbirth, while at least seven million postpartum survivors have serious health problems and an additional 50 million have poor health after giving birth. Of these cases, 90 percent occur in developing countries.

Fathalla posits that the cumulative denial of women’s rights is the frequent cause of maternal deaths in developing countries.

Two female petitioners, one serving as Junior Teacher and the other serving as an Elementary School Educator at the Workers Welfare School at Faisalabad, applied for a grant of 90 days maternity leave.

However, the administration refused to entertain their applications. Through a verbal order on August 26 2022, their request was turned down on the ground that it was inadmissible under the Internship Policy, 2014.

In 2015, the PWWB had appointed the petitioners as internees for six months.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2022.