Demanding reinstatement: Dismissed health dept employees protest on Karakoram Highway

Threaten to continue demonstrating if not immediately given their jobs back.

BATTAGRAM: Sacked staffers on Monday protested the dismissal of employees of different cadres in the health department.

As many as 30 employees of the Battagram Health Department were terminated from service after health authorities declared their hiring procedure went against the rules and their professional education credentials were fake.

Demonstrators blocked Karakoram Highway for traffic for over two hours. The rally started from the district health officer’s office and convened at Pull Bazaar. Employees chanted slogans against former DHO Dr Shahzad and MPA Nawabzada Wali Muhammad Khan. Speakers condemned the dismissal order and alleged it was be political victimisation to cover up the corruption of the former DHO, Dr Shahzad. They demanded their immediate restoration, saying they would otherwise continue their protest.

Amjad Khan, Samina Bibi, Naz Parveen, Murshad and Mumtaz Khan were the prominent ones among those who addressed protesters.

The DHO of Battagram issued termination letters to 20 Class IV employees and 10 paramedics on July 3, 2014, accusing them of having fake diplomas and thus claiming the hiring process was in violation of the rules. These staffers were hired after an interview and test by the District Selection Committee headed by the then DHO in October 2013.

“I have a laboratory technician diploma from the National Institute of Health Islamabad and was hired on the basis of the said qualification, but the verification was obtained from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Medical Faculty Peshawar which has no record of professionals who obtain diplomas from other provinces,” Amjad Khan, one of the sacked employees, told The Express Tribune on Sunday.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2014.