ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s appeal against the regularisation of 26 employees by holding that these employees had already been adjusted against posts created by the provincial government.

A five-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali had closed the proceedings on Feb 24 on a number of appeals instituted by the KP government against the decisions rendered by the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on different dates from 2011 to 2015.

Authored by Justice Amir Hani Muslim, a common verdict recalled that the respondents (employees) were appointed on a contract basis and were in employment / service for several years and projects on which they were appointed had also been included in the regular budget of the government.

Therefore, their status as project employees has ended once their services were transferred to different attached government departments in terms of the provisions of the North West Frontier Province Employees (Regularisation of Services) Act 2009, the judgement explained.

The employees were employed by the KP government on a contract basis in different projects like farm water management project, database development based on electronic tools project, industrial training centre Garhi Shehsdad, industrial training centre Garha Tajak Peshawar, welfare home for destitute children Charsadda, Daarul Aman Haripur, Darul Kafala Swat, centre for mentally retarded and physically handicapped Nowshera as well as Bakkhela and Malakand welfare home for orphan female children Nowshera and Dergai, up-gradation of veterinary outlets, one science and one computer lab in schools and colleges, national programme for improvement of water courses in Pakistan, population welfare programme and the Pakistan institute of community ophthalmology, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar.

Majority of these employees had applied in response to advertisements of different dates of 2004 in various departments and subsequently were selected for a period of one year but their job periods were extended from time to time on the recommendation of provincial government.

In 2006, a proposal was moved for the creation of 302 regular vacancies to accommodate the contract employees working in different projects. The then chief minister of KP approved the proposal of 275 regular posts with effect from July 2007 but in the meantime the provincial government amended provisions of NWFP Civil Servants Act, 1973, and the NWFP Employees (Regularisation of Services) Act, 2009. But the newly created regular posts did not include the posts of a number of employees.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2016