One week’s deadline: Staffers seek Pims separation from varsity

Pims Restoration Movement members say they will go on strike from 22nd if demands not met

ISLAMABAD: The medical and paramedical staff of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), the largest referral hospital in the country, have threatened to go on strike from next week if their demands were not met.

‘Pims Restoration Movement’ chairman Dr Asfandyar Khan and others addressing a news conference here on Monday said that they will boycott outpatient departments from August 22 if the hospital was not separated from Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU).

They said that they were not against the university but it should not be run on the resources of the hospital that was already in financial straits.

They gave a one-week deadline to separate the hospital from the university or else they would boycott OPDs and stay away from work.

The university was established by the Pakistan People’s Party Government through an act of parliament on March 21, 2013, on the premises of the hospital.

But after protests of the employees, a bill was moved in the National Assembly in 2014 to separate the university from the hospital. The bill has been pending for approval since then.

Dr Khan said that the merger has taken a toll on patients as well as the employees who have been deprived of various entitlements.

“Federal government departments have refused to grant various entitlements to the employees including further allotment of houses, rental allowance, plots by the Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation, stipend to their children from the Benevolent Fund and increments by the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenues (AGPR),” he said.

“This was the last budget announced for the hospital,” he said, adding that from the next year, the government will not allocate budget to the hospital and the university.

Under the act, the university has been made a corporation and an autonomous body. It is supposed to generate its own income of around Rs4 billion, which is currently allocated by the government, he said.

“The condition of the hospital is deteriorating day-by-day and patients’ sufferings have increased manifold as neither a new equipment is being installed nor the old ones are being repaired,” he said.

The movement chief alleged that the hospital’s budget is being used to run the university’s affairs.

“Similarly, subordinates of the vice-chancellor are also availing numerous facilities beyond their entitlement for which an immediate audit is required,” he alleged.

The government has also ignored the recommendations of the federal ombudsman for separation of the hospital from the university.

They warned that the amendment bill must be passed during the current sitting of the parliament, otherwise, they will have no option but to boycott work.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2016.