Non-regularised employees: PHC seeks reply from education body

More than 150 college teachers under Frontier Education Foundation still on contract.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday ordered the managing director and academics head of the Frontier Education Foundation (FEF) to submit a reply over its failure to regularise more than 150 college teachers despite a previous court order.

The order was issued during a contempt of court hearing by a division bench comprising Justice Mazhar Alam Minakhel and Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan after petitioner Maliha Aftab’s counsel Ijaz Anwer said teachers had not been regularised despite previous court orders.

Anwer said the teachers had been employed on contractual basis in various colleges run by the FEF and had approached the high court for their regularisation. When the FEF management did not comply to court orders, the employees approached the Supreme Court, which endorsed the high court’s order. Anwer said despite these clear court directions, the teachers continue to work on contractual basis.



An FEF official told the court an inquiry regarding the regularisation of teachers was in its final stage and, once completed, will be presented before the court. FEF counsel Abdul Latif Afridi then sought time to reply till the inquiry is completed.

After hearing arguments from both the sides, the court ordered the FEF management to submit its reply on the next date of the hearing, which is yet to be fixed.

FEF is a monitoring body established in 1992 for the promotion and development of private sector higher education in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa through FEF Act, 1992.

On July 18, 2013, a division bench comprising PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan ordered the regularisation of services of around 250 female lecturers of colleges set up by the government-run FEF and observed they had been discriminated against by the organisation.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2014.