RAHIM YAR KHAN: The Lahore High Court (LHC), Bahawalpur bench, ordered reinstatement of 98 contract employees of the Shaikh Zayed Medical College Hospital (SZMCH) on Wednesday.

Petitioners’ council Muhammad Farooq Warind told Dawn the LHC Bahawalpur bench disposed the petition of 113 contract employees on Feb 27, 2019, declaring appointments by SZMCH Principal Prof Dr Mubarak Ali Chaudhary in April 2018 illegal.

Later, of the 135 employees, 98 old contract but freshly appointed employees filed an appeal an intra court appeal against the decision and the division bench consisting of Justice Jawad Hassan and Justice Shahid Jamil heard that these BPS-1 to BPS-16 appointments were finalized by the principal the Board of Management (BoM) had not been functional since 2015 and an administrative committee also did not approve these appointments.

The bench sought explanation for this mismanagement from the secretary to the Specialized Healthcare and Medical Education. According to the Punjab Medical and Health Institutions Act of 2003, the government appoints the non-official members of the BoM and due to not appointing these members the BOM is non functional.

So, the administrative committee, notified by the government, approved only appointments of 80 nurses and rejected the appointment of other 113 employees and then Prof Chaudhry terminated them. On Wednesday, the court restored 98 contract employees.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2019