MUHAMMAD NAWAZ BHATTI, J.- Through this writ petition filed under Article 199 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, the petitioner seeks a direction to respondent No. 1 to release her total salary since May, 2004 uptill now.
2. Brief facts leading to this writ petition are that the petitioner was appointed as a Staff Nurse in Nishter Hospital, Multan on 1.12.1964 and later on she was promoted as Nursing Sister on 11.12.1976 and since then, she is performing her duties regularly but her salary has not been released since May, 2004 without any reason. She moved a written request to the M.S. Nishter Hospital, Multan on 9.2.2005 for releasing her salary but nothing has been done. The Head Clerk orally asked the petitioner to produce the duplicate copy of her Matric certificate. A letter was also issued by Dr. Masood Ahmad Qureshi, AMS M & R, Nishter Medical Hospital, Multan, asking the petitioner to produce her duplicate copy of Matric certificate, as there was some tampering in her Matric certificate regarding the date of birth.
3. Learned counsel for the petitioner has contended that the petitioner is till in job and doing het duties very well in Cobalt Unit of Nishter Hospital, Multan but salary of the petitioner has not been released uptill now without any reason and as per Fundamental Rules it is a legal right and cannot be stopped; that the petitioner had not tampered with the service record because it was in the custody of Establishment Branch, Medical Superintendent Office, Nishter Hospital, Multan, as is admitted by the respondent in para. 10 of their comments and that according to the (E&D) Rules, it is necessary to issue charge sheet or show cause notice but no charge sheet or show cause notice was served upon the petitioner.
4. On the other hand, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the AAG has supported the comments submitted by respondents No. 1 & 2 and has vehemently opposed the petition.
5. Admittedly the petitioner was appointed as Staff Nurse and later on she was promoted as Nursing Sister on 11.12.1976 and since then she has been performing her duties as Nursing Sister but her salary has not been released since May, 2004.
6. The salary of the petitioner was stopped on the ground that she could not produce her matriculation certificate. Today learned counsel for the petitioner has produced original matriculation certificate issued on 3.5.2005 by the Assistant Controller (Records) Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Lahore and a copy thereof is a placed on the file. A copy of the original matriculation certificate of the petitioner has also been handed over to the Assistant present in Court. Even otherwise from a perusal of the comments it appears that the service record of the petitioner was in the custody of Establishment Branch, Medical Superintendent Office, Nishter Hospital, Multan and, therefore, it was not possible for the petitioner to tamper with the same, it is also observed that non-payment of salary to employee by employer is a denial and violation of Articles 3 & 29 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan,, 1973. in support of this proposition, reliance is placed upon Sughran Begum Vs. Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore and others (1996 CLC 472).
7. In view of the above circumstances, this writ petition is accepted and respondent No. 1 is directed to release the total salary of the petitioner from May, 2004 to January, 2005 and March, April and May, 2005. Resultantly the petition stands disposed of accordingly.