27 Radio Pakistan employees move Islamabad court over ‘unjustified’ sacking
Twenty-seven Radio Pakistan employees have filed an application in the Islamabad High Court over their ‘unjustified’ sacking.
The court took up the case on Tuesday and issued notices to the interior secretary, Radio Pakistan director-general, and administration director. They have been given till November 18 to submit their replies in the case.
A judge asked the lawyer of the employees if they didn’t know when they signed the job contract that the organisation reserves the right to fire them at any time.
Related: PTV and Radio Pakistan employees hired after 2008 to have their degrees verified
The lawyer said that the employees have been working there for the last 15 years and yet they were sacked without any reason. They were stopped from entering the office on October 20.
Many junior-level employees were regularised by the organisation in 2007 and 2012, the lawyer said.
Radio Pakistan dismissed 749 of its contractual employees from service without giving them any notice. The employees had staged a protest in Islamabad against their sacking.
On July 25, Radio Pakistan decided to sack 66% of its contract employees. The state-run radio’s Director Programmes, Khalida Nuzhat, wrote a letter to all the heads of stations seeking the names of contract employees. It was the second letter to the station heads. The first one was written on July 16.
In her second letter on July 23, Nuzhat asked the station heads to submit the details of “contractual” employees, “whose services are no more required for the station/unit.”
Readmore