Court asks KP govt to restore employees of women centres

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has ordered the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to restore and regularise the services of employees of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women Centres.

The directives were issued by a two-member bench comprising of Justice Nisar Hussain Khan and Justice Roohul Amin Khan.Anila Rehman and 33 other employees of the centres had filed a writ petition for regularisation of their services.

The petitioners’ lawyer, Muhammad Ijaz Anwar, submitted before the bench that the centres were opened by the federal government under a project across the country to provide relief to women victims of violence.

He said the centres were also opened in several districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province including Kohat, Abbottabad, Peshawar and Swat.He informed the bench that the federal government had prepared a PC-I in 2004-05 for regularisation of its employees, but it could not be implemented before the 18th Constitutional Amendment.

The lawyer argued that in 2008 when the federal government introduced the amendment, several departments were devolved to the provincial governments including the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women Centres.

At the time of devolution, he said the provincial government informed the federal government of its willingness to continue the projects if it ensured provision of financial assistance to run the centres. He said the provincial government stopped the projects after one year when the federal government halted provision of further financial assistance for the purpose.

The lawyer pointed out that the provincial government terminated the services of the employees and closed all the centres, though it later revived the Kohat centre by bringing it on regular budget.

He submitted that after retrenchment of the petitioners, the provincial government re-advertised the posts. He also cited the Supreme Court judgment directing the authorities to regularise the services of the employees as they had been working for the last six years.Besides, he said the federal government’s committee headed by Khurshid Shah had recommended that contractual employees who completed one-year service should be regularised.

During hearing, Justice Roohul Amin asked the deputy advocate general representing the provincial government to explain as to why the Kohat Centre alone was brought on regular budget while the other centres were closed down.

The deputy advocate general replied that the province had its Darul Aman for distressed and runaway women and therefore it could not run two centres dealing with the same purpose. He said the KP government was running Darul Aman in Peshawar, Abbottabad and Swat, but no such centres existed in Kohat and, therefore, the centre there was brought on regular budget.

Justice Nisar Hussain Khan remarked that the province’s share under the National Finance Commission was increased after the 18th Amendment so that it could bear the cost of the departments to be devolved to the provinces.

The deputy advocate general argued that these were project employees of the federal government and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has its own regularisation policy and the federal government’s PC-1 was not binding on the provincial government.

Justice Nisar Hussain Khan posed a question as to why the federal government increased the share of the provinces under NFC after the 18th constitutional amendment. The deputy advocate general, however, failed to assist the court on the point.After hearing the arguments, the court announced a short order, directing the provincial government to regularise the services of the employees.