PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench has directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and provincial assembly’s speaker to file comments about a petition challenging the government’s move to end applicability of different labour laws, including the one about the minimum wages, to the private educational institutions in the province.

Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan later fixed May 2 for the next hearing into the petition filed by lawyer Saleem Shah Hoti, who sought orders to strike down the relevant amendments to the laws after declaring them illegal and unconstitutional.

Mr. Hoti filed the petition in the larger public interest saying private educational institutions across the province have been subjecting teachers to the worst form of exploitation and that they have been removed from the purview of the labour department for being owned by several lawmakers.

The respondents in the petition are the speaker of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, the provincial government through chief secretary, provincial law secretary, labour department, provincial advocate general, and chairman of ruling PTI Imran Khan.

When the bench began hearing, it was informed that the director labour had filed his comments about the petition, whereas the government and Speaker Asad Qaisar had yet to do so.

The bench directed additional advocate general Mohiuddin Humayun to produce those comments before the next hearing.

Lawyer challenged end of applicability of such laws to private educational institutions

The labour department in its comments has supported the contention of the petitioner stating that it had opposed the said amendments.

Mr Hoti contended that there was no law in the province to regulate private educational institutions, especially the salary of teachers and working conditions for them.

He pointed out that in 2015, the provincial assembly had passed The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Amendment Laws) Act 2015 through which different amendments were made to different labour laws, including The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Payment of Wages Act 2013, The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) 2013, The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minimum Wages Act 2013 and The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Industrial Statistics Act 2013.

He contended that after those amendments, the labour laws in question no longer applied to private educational institutions in the province.

Mr Hoti said after the enforcement of the Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act 2010, the four labour laws in question were passed in the province in 2013. He added that the provincial legislature had passed those laws for the welfare of the workers associated with private sector institutions and units.

The petitioner said those laws were meant to regulate the minimum wages to certain classes of persons employed in factories, industrial establishment and commercial establishment, regulate the payment of wages, provide for regulation of industrial and commercial employment in the province, and facilitate the collection of statistics of certain kinds relating to factories, and industrial and commercial establishments.

He claimed the minimum monthly salary had been fixed at the rate of Rs13,000 in the province, whereas the private educational institutions had employed highly educated and qualified male and female teachers and ancillary staff members for few thousand rupees, which was both disrespectful and insufficient for them.

The petitioner said the labour department had launched a campaign to collect the details of private educational institutions operating in the province and carry out their inspection to address the grievances of the people and staff members. He however said following the controversial amendments, the labour department had no authority to check exploitations.

The petitioner claimed that the assembly’s speaker and other lawmakers from the government side owned educational institutions due to which the impugned amendments were made.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2017