KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has issued notices to the Sindh chief secretary, health secretary and others on a petition impugning the termination of 55 vaccinators.

A two-judge constitutional bench headed by Justice Abdul Mobeen Lakho also restrained the respondents from terminating the services of the petitioners till Jan 14, 2026.

Citing the chief secretary, secretary of the health department, director general of health services Sindh and project director of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) Sindh as respondents, 55 vaccinators have approached the SHC and submitted that they had been appointed as vaccinators to scale up vaccination during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The counsel for petitioner, Nawaz Dahri, argued that project director EPI had asked the health department in 2023 to utilise the service of vaccinators for EPI, a project of the provincial government for vaccination of mothers and children.

Bench issues notices to CS, health secretary and others

He also contended that the services of the petitioners were essentially required, but the respondents have terminated their services through a letter issued on Dec 4 and the same will be effective from Dec 28.

The counsel further stated that since the vaccinators were essentially required by the health department, the impugned termination letter was illegal and liable to be suspended.

After a preliminary hearing, the bench in its order said, “Contentions raised, merit consideration. Issue notices to the respondents as well as AAG for 14.01.2026. Till then, the petitioners shall not be terminated”.

In the petition, the lawyer argued that initially, his clients were recruited on a contract basis for 89 days for vaccination of people during the pandemic. Thereafter, on the recommendations of district recruitment committee, appointment letters were issued to the petitioners, he maintained.

The counsel stated that a summary was also placed before the provincial cabinet for regularisation of the petitioners and 762 vacant posts were identified and declared for regularisation purposes.

However, he maintained that the petitioners were appointed on a contract / ad-hoc basis on regular projects of the provincial health department, but they had been denied the benefit of regularisation.

The lawyer further submitted that on Dec 4, the project director EPI had issued a letter to all the district health officers for termination of petitioners’ services with effect from Dec 28.

The petitioners pleaded to set aside the impugned letters and issue directive to respondents for regularisation of their services.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2025