The Lahore High Court on Friday restrained the managing director of the Punjab Irrigation and Drainage Authority (PIDA) and the provincial government from terminating its contractual employees on their petitions seeking direction for regularisation of their services.
Abdul Qayyum Arif and 147 other employees had filed two petitions submitting that the Punjab government had issued a notification in 2010 announcing regularisation of all contract employees from grades BPS-1 to 16. After the announcement they had asked the government and the PIDA managing director for the regularisation of their services but were unsucessful.
They argued that the non-regularisation of their services was illegal, discriminatory and against the principles of natural justice. They requested the court to issue directions to the Punjab government and the PIDA managing director for regularisation of their services.
A law officer on Friday submitted the reply of the Punjab chief secretary. He said all government employees governed by Contract Policy 2004, should be regularised.
The court was told that the post of PIDA managing director had been lying vacant for 15 years and the irrigation secretary had additional charge of the authority.
Justice Muhammad Khalid Mahmood Khan asked, “If PIDA has been established on a permanent basis then why can’t its employees be regularised?”
“The bureaucrats get degrees from abroad and try to impose an ‘English’ style in departments but they do not know the basic problems of government employees,” the judge remarked.
The court said that the PIDA, was collecting ‘abiana’ (water rates) from farmers on a permanent basis and its budget was approved by the government then why were the employees being denied regularisation.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2012.
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