Lahore High Court rules for daily wagers in Punjab health authorities

The Lahore High Court has ruled in favour of daily wagers employed by Punjab's district health authorities, deciding a case that challenged the provincial government's refusal to regularise eligible staff, UrduPoint reported on Monday.

The outlet's headline described the outcome as a big decision for daily wagers and tied it to the Punjab government's position that eligible daily wagers in the district health authorities would not be made permanent. Its report, filed on Monday morning, named no bench and gave no number of employees covered. It did not set out the operative part of the order or the court's reasons.

What the report establishes is the question at issue: whether eligible daily wagers working in the district health authorities of Punjab should be given permanent appointments. The government's side, as the outlet framed it, was that they would not be regularised. The court decided the point in the employees' favour.

District health authorities are the provincial bodies responsible for government health facilities at district level in Punjab. Daily wage staff work outside the regular establishment, and decisions on absorbing them into it are taken by the provincial government under service rules.

No statement from the Punjab health department or from the Advocate General's office on the ruling was available in the reports published so far, and it could not be established whether the provincial government will challenge the decision. An appeal against a single bench of the Lahore High Court would go to a larger bench of the same court, and from there to the Supreme Court.

No second report of the Lahore ruling was available, so the size of the bench, the number of staff affected and the exact wording of the direction to the provincial government remain unconfirmed.