MULTAN City News

Court last warning to top bureaucrats
Orders came in a petition on 4,000 sacked Education Department
From Our Correspondent
MULTAN: A Lahore High Court (LHC) division bench on Wednesday issued last warning to the Punjab chief secretary, deputy secretary (regulations), the chief minister’s office and the then Multan DCO Nasim Sadiq - presently working as secretary livestock - for not appearing before the court and summoned them in person next week.
The bench issued these directives in a contempt case over their failure to comply the court orders about submitting a report on the delay in reinstatement of the 4,000 Education Department employees whose services were terminated during Musharraf regime.
They had moved the court in 2013 after the Punjab government did not reinstate them. Later in 2014, the division bench sought para-wise comments from the abovementioned respondents who failed to comply with the court orders even after the passage of more than a year.
The petitioner, Farhat Iqbal, said the provincial government had issued a notification (1565/PA dated 12-2-2010) for scrutiny and finalising the reinstatement cases of the teaching staff. Earlier in 2009, the then education secretary had constituted a committee headed by the then director public instructions to deal to the cases of teaching/non-teaching staff.
The committee had also summoned the petitioner on February 19, 2010 for personal hearing, but he (petitioner) moved the LHC in 2013 the government did not reinstate the sacked employees while citing limited budget as the reason.
The division bench had directed the respondents on January 20, 2014 to file their report and para-wise comments, but the orders were never followed.
The case was fixed for hearing on Wednesday but none of the respondents could submit a report nor appear before the court. Therefore, the division headed by Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan and comprising Justice Shah Khawar issued last warning to the respondents and ordered them to appear in person the next week.