Claiming victory: Hospital employees celebrate court verdict

SHC has directed provincial govt to transfer JPMC, NICVD and NICH back to federal govt

KARACHI: The staff of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) and National Institute of Child Health (NICH) celebrated on Monday last week’s decision of the Sindh High Court to transfer the medical institutes back to the federal government.

Almost 300 paramedical and administrative staff of the three institutes started gathering outside JPMC’s Najummudin Auditorium from around 8:30am and were seen congratulating each other after the long pending court verdict. Employees were offering sweets and showing victory signs and dancing. They later moved their ‘victory march’ to NICH and NICVD before dispersing.

The celebration followed the court decision wherein it declared unconstitutional the devolution of the three institutes after the 18th amendment was passed in 2010. Consequently, the court also declared that all acts or orders, directions, notifications or directives issued since the devolution to the province are illegal.

“It’s an historic verdict and we are relieved that the three institutes will be transferred back to the federation,” said one of the employees while celebrating the July 4th verdict.

Zaryab Tiwana, an administrative staff member at NICH, told The Express Tribune that they did not have time to celebrate the verdict properly since the decision was announced two days before Eid. “We [employees] were blessed with two Eids around the same time this year,” he said, alluding to the court decision as a festive occasion.

He added that they have distributed 40 kilogrammes of sweets and it still does not aptly reflect the state of their delight at the court decision.

“Now we can expect payment of our long pending dues from the federal government once the institutes are returned to the federation,” he said, adding that the payment of dues would open new avenues for the employees and they can buy their own homes and marry off their children.

Another JPMC employee, Murtaza Hyderi, was of the view that the three institutes worked well under the federal government. He added that now the staff can expect better allowances than what they receive by the provincial government. “Merit will now be given a priority,” he hoped, wishing further that the restoration to the federation takes place within 90 days as mentioned in the court order.

Deconstructing the verdict

The merits and de-merits of the court order were discussed in a collective meeting of administrative heads and heads of departments at JPMC on Monday.

According to JPMC deputy director Akhtar Anwer, the employees of the institutes cannot be party to this decision and have to obey the court order. However, according to him, the federal and provincial governments are party in the judgment.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2016.