Islamabad High Court (IHC) has summoned the secretary planning commission while hearing a contempt case filed by the officials of the ministry of information technology and telecommunication. Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi of IHC took up the case filed by 18 petitioners who approached the court in 2014 for release of their salaries.
On July 7, 2014, same court had directed the federal government to expedite the release of their salaries. However, their services were terminated in the following month. The stance of the IT ministry was that the petitioners were contractual employees and were hired for specific projects and after the projects have been completed the ministry did not require their services.
The petitioners were employed on contract basis by the IT ministry as network administrators for the Federal Government Data Centre (FGDC) project in 2004. The project aimed at providing basic IT infrastructure to all federal divisions, ministries and inter-connecting them through a secure data centre. At the time, their basic pay scale (BPS) was not determined and a lump sum package was awarded to each employee. In March 2005, the federal government issued a notification stating that the petitioners may be considered equivalent to grade 18 employees.
When Justice Qureshi resumed hearing in this matter, he noticed that the neither secretary planning nor any of his representatives was present in the court. The judge observed that the government officials are "taking this case very lightly". He directed the secretary planning commission to personally appear before the court in next week and adjourned the matter.
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