Ganga Ram hospital: 46 nurses win plea for regular jobs

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday ordered the Punjab government to regularise the services of 46 nurses working on a contract basis at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. Justice Muhammad Khalid Mahmood Khan issued this order while disposing of petitions moved by Nazia Salim and 45 other nurses. The nurses, who were appointed three years ago, said that the provincial government was giving regular jobs to nurses recruited on contract only recently, while seeking to terminate the services of the nurses hired three years ago. This was tantamount to discrimination, they said. The petitioners submitted that the recent recruitment of nurses by the Health Department was politically motivated. A law officer of the Punjab government had argued that the services of these nurses could not be regularised because they were not recruited by the Health Department, but by the board of management of Ganga Ram Hospital. On Thursday, the court ordered the provincial government to immediately regularise the services of the petitioners.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2013.