The Lahore High Court has issued show-cause notice to the secretary Environment Protection Department (EPD) Punjab in a contempt petition for not implementing the court's earlier order about regularisation of 39 employees, and directed him to appear before the court on January 10. The petitioner, Shazia Pervez, and others through their counsel Naveed Ahmed Khawaja argued that the court on March 3, 2016, had passed an order directing the respondent department to consider the cases of 39 contract employees for regularisation of their services.
The petitioner said that she approached Secretary EPD Punjab Captain Saif Anjum (Retd) but he was reluctant to regularise their services in violation of the court's order. An official on behalf of EPD appeared before the court and said they had already implemented the court's orders but he failed to submit any evidence or document in this regard. The prosecutor also failed to convince the court about the implementation of the court's orders.
The petitioners' counsel contended that they were employed by EPD on contract basis for a project 'Regulatory Control on Environment Degradation' through capacity building of environment protection agency, Punjab. The court issued show- cause notice to the Secretary EPD and directed the department to issue salaries of the petitioners for the last nine months.