The long-delayed approval of PC-1 brought a grin to the faces of the employees of National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), who had been awaiting their salaries for the last nine months.
The Central Development Working Party (CDWP), in its meeting, presided over by Planning Development and Reforms Minister Ahsan Iqbal, approved the PC-1 of the programme—which would pave the way for payment of their long-awaited salaries.
It is pertinent to mention here that whole staff of the NACP, including NACP National Programme Manager Dr Abdul Baseer Khan Achakzai, had not received their salaries since July 2016.
Sources said that the PC-1 was prepared in June and approved by secretary health; however, the planning and development division kept delaying its approval.
They said the planning minister later suggested that a joint PC-1 for all three diseases, i.e. AIDS, TB and malaria be developed as a coordination unit, which was prepared and presented to the CDWP.
Despite the promise, the planning ministry did not include the issue in the agenda items of CDWP’s meeting on Thursday on the excuse of working papers, they added.
They said that the officials through hectic efforts provided all the required documents to the planning ministry on Wednesday; finally, the issue was included in the agenda of CDWP meeting. Resultantly, the PC-1 was approved on Thursday.
Talking to Pakistan Today, a senior official said that they are very happy as the issue has finally been resolved, though the release of salaries would take some time because of a change of signatory.
He said that first there was one signatory but now two signatures would be needed on the cheque because of the consolidation of the three programs, including AIDS, TB and malaria.
It was yet to decide who will head the programme, however, Dr Abdul Baseer Khan Achakzai and Dr Nasir—head of TB programme—were the real contenders for the slot.
Another official said that building rent would not be cleared now, as some new steps would be taken to get the building rent cleared.
The NACP had not paid the rent of the building being used for its offices on the premises of the National Institute of Health (NIH) despite several reminders.
Besides, several vehicles standing in the parking lot are rusting because they neither have funds for fuel nor to get them repaired.
However, the official said that the problems of building rent and the repairing vehicles would remain unaddressed because these were not part of the agenda.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Dr Abdul Baseer Khan Achakzai said that the employees of the programme, directly appointed by Global Funs in the provinces, as well as in the centre, were getting their salaries uninterruptedly. However, the civil servants of the programme did not get their salaries because their salaries were directly linked with the PC-1.
To a question, he said that government’s share in the programme is 20 per cent, while the share of Global Fund Against AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) is 80 per cent.
The government is only providing building, staff, hospital and power and rent bills, and the rest of the expenses are covered by the Global Fund.
The first case of HIV in Pakistan was diagnosed in 1987 and, after that, the government established the National AIDS Prevention and Control Program (NACP) with resources concentrated on the establishment of laboratory-based services in the same year.
A senior official said that at present, according to some estimates, there are over 0.102 million suspected and 18,500 registered HIV/AIDS patients.
However, he said even then the government paid little attention in this regard—despite the fact that the world organisations are gradually reducing health funding for Pakistan as they were focusing on lesser developed countries elsewhere in the world.
