PHC summons health secretary for non-release of salaries

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa secretary health to appear before it today for non-compliance with an order on release of salaries to social mobilisers of Maternal Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH) programme.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan issued the order. Qaiser Jamal and others had filed the contempt of court petition against the secretary health for not releasing their salaries.

Lawyer Sahibzada Asadullah Khan informed the bench that the department had not been paying salaries to social mobilisers for the last six years for which they were facing financial problems.

He submitted that the high court in its judgment about regularisation the services of the social mobilisers had also directed the government to release the pending salaries of the petitioners. The counsel said the non-release of the salaries of the petitioners even after the court’s direction amounted to a contempt of court.

Earlier, the high court had also issued arrest warrants against the officials of the Health Department for not releasing the salaries of the social mobilisers for years. The petitioner’s counsel told the court that the Health Department had restored the 24 employees on permanent basis but was yet to pay their salaries, which have been pending for the last six years despite clear court orders.

The social mobilisers were removed from service in 2011 for unspecified reasons. They filed a writ petition for restoration which was accepted on April 12, 2014. The court ordered mobilizers restoration but the Health Department challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court, which upheld PHC’s original decision. They were restored subsequently.