IHC directs govt to regularize contractual employees after getting Cabinet Committee's approval

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Tuesday directed the federal government to regularize the contractual employees and daily wagers working in various ministries with the approval of Cabinet Committee.

An IHC bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akher Kiyani announced the judgment in a case seeking regularization of contractual employees and daily wagers.

The order read that all ministries and departments issue joining letters to all regularized employees within three months.

It directed the Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CAAD) to get approval from the Cabinet Committee to regularize employees of grade 1-15 within three months.

The court directed to send the cases of project and ad hoc employees of above grade 16 to the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) for regularization. The FPSC would give its opinion after conducting tests and interviews of ad hoc employees within six months, it added.

The IHC observed that the regularization policies of 2008, 2011 and 2016 had failed to address the issues of contractual employees and daily wagers, saying that the federal government could also not play any role to regularize the employees.

The court also stopped the federal government from temporarily recruitment in future. Like provincial governments, the federal government should introduce amendments in law for employees' regularization rather making policies, it added.