ISLAMABAD: Daily wage employees of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for the regularisation of their services.

After hearing the arguments of the petitioners on Thursday, IHC Justice Athar Minallah sought a report of the government’s stance on the matter.

During the proceedings, the bench inquired about government policies introduced for regularising contractual employees in 2008 and 2011.

Officials of the Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Division said the petitioners could not be regularised under the 2008 policy.

The petitioners’ counsel Umair Baloch argued that employees were regularised under a policy drafted on June 30, 2011 and that the government had deliberately formed a committee under the previous policy of 2008 to examine the regularisation of the petitioner’s services.

He said the regularisation policy of 2011 was introduced with the approval of the prime minister and the Federal Cabinet.

He also brought up the matter of hundreds of other employees who were not able to join as daily wage employees even after they underwent medical tests and their reports came back. However, the court said that the case of employees not being able to join will be heard separately.

The bench also directed for the appointment of an officer from the Establishment Division and the Cabinet Division to assist the court in this case.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2016