All Pakistan Lady Health Workers Employees Association (APLHWEA) Sindh on Tuesday continued its protest demonstration on second consecutive days against non-payment of its members’ four-month salaries.
The protest started in the morning outside the Karachi Press Club and later the lady health workers marched towards Sindh Assembly, but security personnel stopped them outside the assembly’s main gate.
The lady health workers staged a sit-in outside the main assembly gate and demanded removal of provincial coordinator of lady health workers programme. Massive traffic jam was witnessed near the Sindh Assembly during the protest.
As many as four lady health workers fainted outside the Sindh Assembly and they were shifted to a nearby hospital. The lady health workers said protest demonstration would continue till acceptance of their genuine demands.
APLHWEA Sindh’s President Khair-un-Nisa Memon said that lady health workers had not been paid their salaries since last four months, and they were facing great hardships due to that injustice. She said bureaucratic hurdles in issuance of offering letter also condemnable. She demanded the formation of a commission to probe the mismanagement and irregularities in national programme for family planning and primary health care in the province.
General Secretary Shahnaz Ranjhani said that provincial coordinator of lady health workers should be removed from his post, as he had badly failed to address the problems facing lady health workers in the province. She said the government should pay salaries as per their pay-scale.
Later, Sindh Information Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, and Provincial Minister for Health Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar met with the lady health workers and assured them that their salaries would be paid soon. They said provincial government had approved special grant to pay salaries to health workers every month.
They said National Programme for Family Planning & Primary Health Care is still a federal subject and provincial government is not responsible for the delay in salaries.
After assurance from provincial ministers, the lady health workers ended their sit-in. When contacted, General Secretary APLHWEA Shahnaz Ranjhani said a meeting of lad health workers leadership and provincial authorities concerned will be held on Wednesday (today) on these issues. She said the lady health workers will chalk out the future line of action after the meeting.