After a long protest and roughing up with traders, lady health workers and supervisors on Friday agreed on leaving the road on assurance of the Punjab Health Department to solve their issues.
More than thousand LHWs from different cities of Punjab took to the road at Charing Cross once again for non-payment of their salaries since four months. The demands of the LHWs and LHSs also included their regularisation which was due despite passing of several years. The protest turned violent when some traders tried to clear the road from protesters to get passage. Both parties got in a direct clash which police tried to resolve but due to being larger in number, LHWs succeeded in taking the upper hand in the fight by beating a few traders.
On prolonging the sit-in for more than two hours, a delegation of health officials reached the spot to resolve the issue. In a successful dialogue with Punjab Health Director General Dr Aslam Chaudhry, Special Secretary Health Dawood Khan, Health Deputy Secretary Saleha Saeed and Provincial Coordinator for LHW Program Dr Akhtar Rashid, a nine-member group of LHW representatives assured them of ending the protest and participation in the polio vaccination campaign. According to officials of the health department, after protest of LHWs last week, the department had taken up the issue with the federal government and demanded Rs 1.2 billion for three months salary of LHWs. But only Rs 412 million were given which could accommodate one month salary, which had been transferred into bank accounts of LHWs across the province. The delegation of health officials assured the protesting LHWs to retake up their issue with the federal government. The DG Health told the documentary evidence of communication between provincial department and federal government regarding demands of LHWs was shown to protesters and guaranteed them of cooperation. He said the regularisation demand was also taken up with the federal government, as the programme was yet to be devolved to provinces in 2015.
LHW Association President Rukhsana Anwar told Pakistan Today that they were assured of salaries’ payment in 10 days. She claimed their demands were not fulfilled however they had cancelled the strike and protest only in the national interest. She announced that their next protest will be held in the federal capital. Rukhsana called it unfair that pay scales of a matriculated driver, an intermediate LHW and lady health supervisors with masters’ education were the same. She said that on the regularisation demand, the negotiating team showed their concerns but claimed to have no budget for that. She demanded revising their pay scale structure.
