PHC issues notices to health officials for failure to follow court orders

Court had ordered the dept to reinstate male nurses with benefits but perks yet to be provided.

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has issued show-cause notices to officials of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa health department for their failure to reinstate male nurses from Malakand Agency’s Dir district along with benefits.

The nurses’ petitioner told PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan on Wednesday that despite court orders, the health department was reluctant to provide the male nurses with the benefits that they were entitled to after reinstatement.

The counsel said the nurses were regularised upon court orders in 2011 and instructions were issued to health department officials that they must be awarded due benefits.

The chief justice issued show-cause notices to the department’s director general, provincial secretary, Daggar and Timergarah’s executive district officers and the medical superintendents of the district headquarter hospitals of Daggar and Timergarah.

The nurses were terminated when their contracts ended in 2008. However, they were regularised by the court in 2010 and orders were issued in 2011 that all benefits should be provided to them within a month.