An official of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat confided to this correspondent that workers of Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC), Hattar, observed a tool-down strike for six days in April this year against delay in regularisation of their services but later they called off their the strike when former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani announced their regularisation on May 1.

He said the concerned authorities followed the instructions and issued the letter bearing serial number PMDIR/2231/DS(IMP)PAW/12 dated May 5, 2012, that mistakenly carried the name of the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

“It was a mistake and orders were supposed to be issued to regularise 200 contractual employees of Heavy Electrical Complex. But taking advantage of this mistake the Higher Education Commission immediately formed a committee to preparethe list of employees from 18 to 20 grade to be regularised in line with this letter,” he said.

The high officials of Higher Education Commission held a meeting on Thursday (August 2) in which they decided to move ahead with their plan to regularise their contractual employees in line with the directives of the controversial letter.

An HEC official said the committee has been formed under the chairmanship of HEC executive director Dr Sohail Naqvi whose contract is going to expire on September 14 and his name may also be included in the list.

Dr Sohail Naqvi told The News that they are duty-bound to follow the instructions and they are examining profiles of their contractual employees and a report would soon be sent to the PM Secretariat in this respect. To a question he denied the impression that there is any kind of confusion regarding issuance of letter and said it carried his name and designation and was clearly directed to the Higher Education Commission.

He said they would follow the instructions and would submit their report and it would then be up to the PM Secretariat to decide whether this letter was supposed to be sent to the Higher Education Commission or any other institution.