KARACHI: As long as the population grows, the necessity of vaccinating babies will exist, observed Justices Shahid Anwar Bajwa and Aftab Ahmed Gorar during a hearing at the Sindh High Court on Friday.
The bench was hearing a case filed by Ashique Ali and 28 other workers hired by the health department. In 2005, 700 vaccinators were recruited on contract for a year for routine immunisation of new born babies under the project called “Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation”, internationally known as GAVI.
The petitioners fear that the government is delaying their regularisation and they may be terminated. The chief secretary, the health secretary, the director-general of the health services department and the executive district officer of health were cited as respondents in the plea.
The population is growing day by day and with the new babies born, the need for vaccinators will also grow, the bench told the defence lawyer, as he tried to argue that the contract workers were hired for a specified period, which could be renewed if the government chose to.
They were not employed for vaccination against a particular disease like chicken pox or polio, and the health department cannot say that the disease has been eradicated so their services are not required, the judges remarked.
The court also asked how much progress had been made on the request sent to the higher authorities to make permanent the job of a vaccinator. The health department asked the court to grant it more time to comment on that.
The court, putting off the hearing until October 16, ordered that no action be taken against the petitioners.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 15th, 2012.
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