The Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHSRC) has finally issued a notification to ensure the release of 11-month pending salaries of the employees of the ministry.
All the employees associated with National Aid Control Program (NACP), including Dr Abdul Baseer Khan Achakzai, national programme manager of NACP, were not paid salary since June last year.
The NACP employees, who are 19 in number, were not paid a paisa for almost a year despite repeated assurances by the high-ups in the ministry.
Earlier, the issue was delayed on various excuses especially that the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms wanted to consolidate the three programmes i.e., HIV, TB and malaria into one Common Unit to manage Global Fund and to make the programme more effective.
However, with the merger of the three programmes into a single one with the new name ‘Common Unit’ on March 9, 2017, it created another issue as to who will head the ‘Common Unit’. Both Dr Nasir who headed TB and Dr Baseer Khan Achakzai who headed AIDS and malaria claimed to be legitimate candidates for the slot.
A senior official privy to the development told Pakistan Today that though the three programmes had been integrated some months ago, the government could not appoint a head of the programme due to which their salaries were delayed as the Auditor General of Pakistan refused to release salaries until the appointment of the head of the programme.
Therefore, he said, they repeatedly requested the ministry to come up with a solution to the issue as all the employees were hand to mouth.
And finally, the health ministry had to issue a confusing notification so as to ensure the release of their long-delayed salaries.
The notification, a copy of which is available with Pakistan Today, reads, “The services of the following officers have been placed in Coordination/Common Unit to Manage Global Fund (TB, AIDS and malaria) against the posts mentioned against each officer w.e.f. 1st July, 2016, till 30-06-2017 for the purpose of payment of their outstanding salaries.”
According to the notification, Dr Baseer Khan Achakzai, National AIDS Control Programme, National Programme Manager (BS-20) has been placed as Deputy National Coordinator AIDS (BS-19); Dr Aurangzaib Quadir, National TB Control Programme, Deputy Programme Manager (BS-19), has been placed as Deputy National Coordinator TB (BS-19) in his own pay and scale of (BS-18); Dr Sofia Siddiqui of National TB Control Programme, Senior Programme Officer (BS-18), has been placed as Senior Programme Officer (BS-18), and Sobia Shaheen, National TB Control Programme, National Social Scientist (BS-18), has been placed as National Social Scientist/Deputy Director BCC (BS-18) in the Common Unit.
However, the services of officials of National AIDS Control Programme including Muhammad Arif Bashir, Counselor (BS-17); Dr Naila Bashir, Medical Officer (BS-17); Muhammad Rafiq APS (BS-16); Mehmoodul Hasan, Research Assistant (BS-16); Hayat Mir Tariq, Lab Technologist (BS-16) and Hafiz Muhammad Usman, a Lab Technologist (BS-16), have been placed in Coordination/Common Unit with the same post and BPS.
The official said that the notification would help resolve the issue of their salaries, but it appears to be a bid to clear way for the appointment of Dr Nasir as head of the Common Unit because only Dr Baseer, the senior-most official in the programme, has been placed in Common Unit in BS-19, instead of his own scale of BS-20. No other officer’s scale was changed.
Sources said that a three-part criterion was set to evaluate candidates: Experience, Qualification and Eligibility, all based on public health relationship and performance. However, no one in the programme was close to Dr Baseer. Despite spending three days on the exercise, this three-part criterion was dropped.
Sources added that since Dr Nasir had strong political backing despite the fact he headed only TB programme and is on deputation, he might be appointed to lead the Common Unit.
Dr Nasir’s appointment to the post could create legal problems since the Supreme Court (SC) had already issued orders to send all the employees on deputation back to their parent departments. Besides, Dr Baseer is the senior most permanent employee in the ministry.
They said that it is quite worrisome that Pakistan is among the few countries where AIDS, TB and malaria diseases get no attention from the government.
