PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Friday issued notice to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government asking its advocate general to assist it on the question whether the Essential Services (Maintenance) Act, 1958, could be invoked in the health sector or not.

A bench consisting of Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Syed Afsar Shah stopped the health department from taking any adverse action against senior doctor Musa Kaleem, an employee of the Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar, to whom a show cause notice was issued by the government for participating in a protest against certain health policies.

After preliminary hearing of a writ petition filed by Dr Musa Kaleem, who is also president of Post Graduate Medical Institute (PGMI) Teachers Association, the bench directed the government not to take any action against the petitioner.

High court asks if that law could be applied to health sector

The next hearing into the petition will be fixed later.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Qazi Jawad Ihsanullah, raised several questions related to the applicability of the Essential Services (Maintenance) Act, 1958, to the health sector and said the law could only be applied to certain services including civil defence, transport, educational boards and universities.

He argued that the petitioner was issued a show cause notice by the government on Feb 3 for addressing a protest gathering at Lady Reading Hospital. However, he stated that the government had issued a notification on Feb 8 wherein it was mentioned that provisions of the Essential service (Maintenance) Act would be applied to Medical Teaching Institutes functioning under the MTI Reforms Act, 2015, and other public sector health facilities.

Qazi Jawad argued that in the said law it was not mentioned that strike and holding protest meeting were prohibited. He argued that the said Act empowered the government to use directives that any person or persons engaged in any employment to which this Act was applied should not depart out of such area or areas and for such period not exceeding three months.

He requested the bench to declare the applicability of the said Act to health sector as illegal and also to declare the issuance of show cause notice to the petitioner as illegal.

DRC PROCEEDINGS STAYED: The bench stopped a dispute resolution council in Peshawar from further proceedings in a monetary dispute between two persons and issued notices to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Police Officer, the superintendent of police Peshawar cantonment and the relevant DRC for replies in the case.

The bench was hearing a writ petition filed by a citizen, Qaiser Khan, challenging proceedings conducted by a DRC in an application filed by his rival, Irshadul Haq, who alleged that he was having a monetary dispute with the petitioner.

Advocate Alamzeb Khan appeared for the petitioner and stated that applicant Irshadul Haq had approached the DRC and had alleged that he was having a monetary dispute to the tune of Rs2.7 million with the petitioner.

He said earlier the then SP (Cant), Rana Umar Farooq, had stopped the proceedings and had stated that the DRC was not having jurisdiction in a dispute of such a big amount.

The counsel said earlier, the high court had taken notice of the functioning of DRCs in the province without legal backing.

He added that last year amendments were made in the Police Order so as to provide legality to the DRCs and following those amendments the present dispute had again been reopened.

The lawyer said the police had been harassing the petitioner.

He added that the DRC had no legal authority to entertain such like complaints as it was a civil dispute.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2016