Despite holiday, banks across the country remained opened on Saturday to pay the salaries of Lady Health Workers (LHWs), a day after the Supreme Court ordered the government to pay the outstanding salaries by midnight. More than 100,000 LHWs had been suffering due to non-payment of salaries after the government passed the 18th Amendment, transferring certain powers to the provinces. The government has been asking the provinces to take responsibility to pay the health workers, who have been awaiting their salaries. The Supreme Court, coming to the rescue of the LHWs, ordered the government to pay the outstanding salaries before Eid “by all means”. The government told the court that the funds for the disbursement of salaries to LHWs, had been transferred to the provinces by the federation. Upon which the court ordered it operate the banks even on Saturday to ensure payment of salaries to the LHWs. All branches of the National Bank of Pakistan remained open on Saturday, in compliance with the court’s order. The Aabpara Market branch, Islamabad, opened at scheduled time, but no lady health worker visited it to claim salary.
