PHC strikes down KP govt’s amendment: Private schools bound to pay minimum wage to staff

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has struck down the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government amendment to end applicability of labour law about minimum wage to the private educational institutions in the province. A division bench comprising Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim declared illegal the amendments barring the private educational institutions from applicability of minimum wage law. A Peshawar-based lawyer, Salim Shah Hoti, had challenged the amendments to the labour law and requested the court to strike down the relevant amendments to the laws by declaring them illegal. He had filed the petition in the larger public interest, saying private educational institutions across the province were subjecting teachers to the worst form of exploitation but they had been removed from the purview of the Labour Department for being owned by several lawmakers. The petitioner claimed that the assembly's speaker Asad Qaiser and other lawmakers from the government side owned educational institutions, due to which the impugned amendments were made. During the course of hearing, Saleem Shah Hoti submitted that there was no law in the province to regulate private educational institutions, especially the salary of teachers and working conditions for them. He pointed out that the provincial assembly had passed The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Amendment Laws) Act 2015, through which different amendments were made to different labour laws. The amendments included the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Payment of Wages Act 2013, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) 2013, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minimum Wages Act 2013 and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Industrial Statistics Act 2013.