ISLAMABAD: Thousands of daily wage and contractual employees working in different ministries and divisions are disappointed as the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government has ignored regularisation of those working on Basic Pay Scale (BPS) 16 and above posts.

On Nov 11, the government notified a committee to prepare recommendations for the cabinet after reviewing cases of daily wage/contractual employees for their regularisation.

As it was not mentioned in the notification that employees of which grades would be regularised, the employees working against the posts of BPS 16 and above, including doctors, were hopeful that they would also be regularised.

The committee is headed by Federal Minister for Law and Justice Farogh Naseem while advisers to the prime minister on finance and revenue, institutional reforms and austerity and the Establishment Division are its members.

Doctors, employees disappointed with committee’s decision to consider only contractual employees from BPS 1 to 15 for regularisation

However, according to a letter dated Jan 21 and available with Dawn, the committee at a meeting has stated that only daily wage/contractual employees working on BPS 1 to 15 posts would be considered for regularisation.

Doctors from Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan and Minister Farogh Naseem to also consider regularisation of their services.

They said during the tenure of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) it was decided that services of all contractual employees would be regularised. However, a number of employees were left unregularised due to the lethargic attitude of some ministries.

Later, during the tenure of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) employees from BPS 1 to 15 were regularised and now once again same is being done.

During the previous tenure, the provincial assemblies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Punjab had regularised employees working in all scales, they said.

Dr Mohammad Faisal, who works at the Pims Cardiac Centre, said in 2005 they were recruited for a project which had to be completed in 2007. But as the project was delayed for 10 years, the services of the doctors could not be regularised.

Same was the case with doctors of the Bone Marrow Transplant Centre at the hospital.

“In 2013 our case was sent to the Khursheed Shah committee but it deferred it. Even in 2015 we were told that we would be regularised but the promise could not be materialised.”

He said the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat, chaired by Senator Talha Mehmood, had also directed regularisation of staff.

“State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan also assured us that he would play his role in the regularisation of the employees,” he said.

Shoaib Shaheen, a Supreme Court lawyer, told Dawn that during the tenure of the PPP over 100,000 employees were regularised.

“Moreover, there is an observation of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and a high court that the employees should be regularised through the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC). Moreover, courts also have directed to give additional marks to the employees for their regularisation,” he said.

“It is a strong case and the government can regularise the employees without any hesitation,” he said.

When contacted, Secretary Ministry of National Health Services Dr Allah Bakhsh Malik said the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat had directed for the regularisation of contractual employees.

“During a meeting of the committee Senator Javed Abbasi had said he would move a resolution in the upper house for the regularisation of employees. If the resolution is passed, we will be in a position to move a strong case. Moreover, employees can also be regularised through an act of parliament or a high-powered committee,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2020