Laid off: Sanitary staffers stage protest

Threaten to launch movement if not reinstated, paid.

RAWALPINDI: A large numbers of sanitary department staffers on Thursday staged a protest against the Rawalpindi district health department for firing them from service and not releasing their pending salaries.

Around 100 staffers, who were hired some three months back by the district health department, following the instructions of the Punjab government, as daily wagers to carry out anti-dengue and polio campaigns, claimed that they were sacked from service despite the fact that the health authorities had promised them of regularisation.

The protesting sanitary department staffers blocked Katcheri Chowk and chanted slogans against health officials and the Punjab chief minister and threatened to launch a movement if they were not reinstated.

The protesters gathered outside the office of district coordination officer and staged a demonstration on the road.

They demanded that the government reinstate them and pay their pending salaries or else they would launch a protest movement.

Executive District Officer Health Dr Arshad Ali Sabir said that the staffers had been hired for three months and they had been told about their temporary hiring. He said that the government would soon clear their dues.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2016.