Unpaid salaries: Utility Stores’ officials summoned by Peshawar High Court

Division bench seeks explanation of the delay in payment of outstanding salaries to 95 employees.

ABBOTABAD:

The managing director (MD) and human resources (HR) manager of the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) have been summoned by  the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to submit a reply explaining the delay in the payment of outstanding salaries to 95 employees. The orders were issued by a division bench of the PHC in Abbottabad on Tuesday.

During the hearing, the bench was informed that in 1998, the central government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had sacked 95 employees of the USC’s Abbottabad zone who had been hired during the 1993-1997 government headed by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

However, in 2008, when the PPP came into power once again, it decided to reinstate those government employees who had been sacked by the PML-N government through an act in the National Assembly.

All government departments had implemented the official orders, however, the USC failed to comply, forcing the employees to move the PHC on January 30, 2014.

The writ petition filed by Syed Arif Hussain Shah, the vice president of the USC Workers Union, informed the court that according to the formula devised by the previous PPP government, the company was bound to pay salaries of 36 months to 95 employees, amounting to a total ranging from Rs60 million to Rs70 million. However, the USC has not done so.

On Tuesday, after hearing arguments from both sides, the division bench comprising Justice Malik Manzoor Hussain and Justice Waqar Seth, issued notices to the MD and HR manager to appear in court and submit their reply at the next hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2014.