LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has held that safe motherhood is the fundamental right of every woman and the government officials cannot deny the right to maternity leave to the petitioners merely because the policy of 2014 does not provide for it.

The court allowed a petition of Sabeen Asghar and others and observed that Article 8(2) of the Constitution prohibits the state from making any law, and by extension, any policy that bereaves or abridges the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

The court held that the petitioners are entitled to avail maternity leave with pay without any impact on their career.

“The respondent officials should have followed the dictum laid down in that case and approved the petitioners’ request for maternity leave,” the court added.

The petitioners have assailed the Policy of 2014. Their grievance is that it violates their right to maternity leave, and they seek its enforcement, claiming it is their fundamental right.

The court observed, the right to safe motherhood is a fundamental right under Article 9 of the Constitution and its violation also constitutes an infringement of Articles 14(1) and Article.

The court held that the right to maternity leave entitles working women to paid leave or social security benefits during a reasonable period before and after childbirth.

The Punjab Workers Welfare Board (PWWB) had appointed the petitioners in 2015 as internees for six months. However, it kept extending the period of their employment without regularizing them.

The petitioner is serving as Junior Teacher (Science), at the Workers Welfare School (Evening Class) at Faisalabad. She applied to respondent official for a grant of maternity leave for 90 days, but he refused to entertain the application on the ground that it was inadmissible under the Internship/ Retainership Policy, 2014.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022