ISLAMABAD, May 23: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday issued notices to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman, its member administration and the Capital Hospital executive director in petitions filed by senior nurses seeking their promotions.

IHC Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui took up the petitions.

The petitioners, Anwar Sultana and others, through their counsel advocate Dr Babar Awan, told the court that they had been working in the CDA Hospital as nurses for the last over 20 years and last they were promoted to BPS-16 in 1996.

They have been waiting for their next promotion since then because the authority was inducting nurses directly on senior positions, they said.

Advocate Awan, whose close aide was recently removed from the top legal position of the CDA, told the court that it seemed there was no space for competent persons in the CDA and the authority wanted to close its doors for experienced professionals.

He contended that his clients deserved the BPS-17 because all the senior nurses met the conditions for further promotion but they were ignored by the departmental committee.

According to the counsel, under a memorandum of Finance Division of 1991, the nurses had the right to be promoted in BPS-17.

Meanwhile, the IHC Chief Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman has directed the secretary, Capital Development and Administration Division (CAAD), to decide in a month the appeals of nurses of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) who have been promoted as nursing superintendents but the benefits of their promotion were denied to them.

The petitioners Rubina Kausar and others told the court that they had been working in Pims since 1990 and were promoted in BPS-17 as nursing supervisor on May 24, 2011. They said that the health ministry before its devolution had linked the promotion of 13 nurses in BPS-17 with the verification of their BSc degrees as a result of which they were still receiving salaries and other benefits of their pervious pay scale.

The petitioners said the condition was illegal and against the service rules of the government servants.

According to the petition, nurses also submitted an appeal to the secretary CADD on April 4, 2012 seeking for removal of the condition.

They cited secretary CADD and executive director Pims as respondents.