LAHORE, July 14: The Lahore High Court on Thursday issued contempt notices to three officers of the PIA Corporation for not complying with its order to regularize the services of daily wagers. The court ordered director (administration) Wasim Bari at Karachi, chief engineer Mureed Abbas Sumbal and stores manager Suleman Ali at Islamabad to submit their reply within three weeks for their failure to implement the order.

The contempt petition was moved by Mohammad Shoaib and Nisar Ahmad Arshad, temporary employees of the PIAC, who submitted that the LHC in its order on December 6 last had directed the PIAC to regularise the services of 14 employees by March, 2005.

The petitioners stated that the PIAC administration had taken no notice of the court order and, as a result, they continued to work on a daily wage of Rs100. They were not on the rolls of PIA but that of a contractor who was not giving them benefits allowed to other PIAC employees doing a similar job.

They submitted that the contract system in the PIAC had been dispensed with on April 30, 2003, and it regularized the services of a large number of temporary employees except the 14 which was illegal.

Their counsel contended that the law prohibited contract employment and stipulated that all temporary employees should be confirmed within a period of three months. But the PIAC was not regularizing the services of the petitioners and 12 others without any legal justification.