500 HED employees regularised

LAHORE :The Punjab chief minister has approved a summary seeking regularisation of services of over 500 contract employees of Commerce stream of Higher Education Department (HED), Punjab.

Sources in the HED Punjab said the summary was received recently with approval of the chief minister. They added the CM had, however, also directed the department to scrutinise the list of employees. An HED official said the scrutiny process had also been completed and formal notification vis-à-vis regularisation of their services would be issued by this week.

Replying to a question that these employees might not get their salaries for the month of August as their contracts expired on July 31, the official said there might be some delay but they should be happy that their longstanding demand had been accepted.    

It is pertinent to mention here that these employees, including teaching and non-teaching staff (BS-16 & above), were transferred to HED Punjab from Tevta in 2012. Their services were protected in relaxation of PPSC rules under Contract Appointment Policy 2004. The contract employees who were recruited (by TEVTA) along with these contract employees (now transferred to HED) who are still working in Tevta were regularised in 2016 without involving the procedure of Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).  A high-powered committee formed by Punjab government had recommended regularisation of the Commerce stream employees in June this year.