Not paid for three months: Finance, education secretaries’ pays put on hold for defying court orders

As HEC and KRL tussle, staff at Kahuta’s only boys’ college ignored.

RAWALPINDI:

Teachers and staff members at the Kahuta’s Government Degree College for Boys have not been paid salaries for three months.

On a petition filed by the staff on Friday, the Lahore High Court stopped the salaries of the Punjab finance and higher education secretaries for ignoring court orders. The court, on February 6, had directed the officials to ensure that the staff members are paid their salaries.

Over 200 employees of the college, which is run by a board of governors (BoG) headed by the KRL chairperson approached the LHC Rawalpindi Bench last November, asking for regularisation of service by the Punjab government and payment of two months salaries. While the salaries were paid, they were not regularised.

Since they were not regularised, they did not get salaries for December, January or February. They approached the court again on February 6, who ordered the officials to pay the salaries.

On Friday, Advocate Ikran Amin Minhas representing the staff members, said the court directed a senior civil judge in Lahore to cease salaries of Punjab finance and higher education secretaries and submit a report to the Rawalpindi bench.

The petitioners maintained before the court that the college remains the only facility for boys in Kahuta.

Financial responsibility for the college was turned over to the KRL board after the school was made autonomous in 1994.

At the time, it was agreed that a certain amount would be paid by the government for staff salaries and certain expenses. Until 2009, when the payments stopped, the Punjab government had been paying Rs6 million on a quarterly basis (Rs 2 billion per month), with Rs1.8 million needed for monthly salaries alone.

To cover other expenses, the BoG increased admission fees from Rs1,000 to Rs6,000, but could still not raise more that Rs900,000 every year.

On the other hand, the Punjab Higher Education Department had informed the court that seven colleges in the province had been given autonomous status. At the time, the staff members were given the option to either serve in the same college or transfer to other colleges. Only one lecturer and three non-teaching staff chose to stay with the college, which is located inside the sensitive KRL area, according to the education department.

According to the department, the current staff could not be regularised as they had not been appointed by the Punjab government but were hired directly by the BoG.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2012.