ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the government to deliver the salaries of the Lady Health Workers to their residences by midnight tonight, DawnNews reported.

A three judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, heard the case pertaining to non-payment of salaries to the health workers.

During the hearing, the deputy attorney general told the court that the amount of salaries for the third quarter of the year had been deposited in the accounts of the provincial governments.

Upon which, Chief Justice Iftikhar said that the government had only fulfilled its responsibilities by depositing the salaries and had not done anyone a favour.

The chief justice moreover directed the deputy attorney general that the health workers' salaries should be delivered to their residences by midnight tonight.

Responding to the directive, the deputy attorney general said that it might be difficult to deposit the salaries in the concerned accounts as officials had been working until late on Thursday.

Upon which, the chief justice directed the deputy attorney general to read out Article 9 of the Constitution to the concerned officials.

Moreover, during the hearing, petitioner Bushra Arain requested the court to send to jail those responsible for the non-payment of the health workers' salaries.

Lady Health Workers have been protesting against non-payment of salaries and against the government’s failure to regularise their services for months across the country and seem to have reached their limits. They had demanded that 1,30,400 members of the LHW program be regularised and their salaries paid.