Paramedic promotions delayed because of public holiday

Employees of CDGK-run hospitals have been waiting for nearly five years.

KARACHI: After waiting for almost five years, the paramedics of city government-run hospitals believed that they would finally receive their increments and promotions on Tuesday.

But the Sindh government announced a public holiday.

A ceremony was to be held at the Civic Centre on Tuesday where City District Government, Karachi (CDGK) officials were to distribute the letters and the DCO Karachi and the city administrator would have presided over the event. The CDGK had to distribute these letters to kick off the implementation of the Paramedics Service Structure (PSS), 2006. The provincial health ministry had approved the PSS for employees of the public-health sector on May 17, 2006 and it was to be immediately enforced in 22 districts of the province. But the implementation was delayed, even though the Sindh government had issued a notification to this effect.

The CDGK health group of offices EDO had already signed their promotion letters in October 2010 but the letters were not issued due to departmental procedures, red-tapism and the absence of the City Administrator Fazlur Rehman due to his illness. “If this is implemented, it would benefit 3,000 employees from grades 1 to 15,” a district officer (DO) told The Express Tribune. “It is feared that the provincial authorities might further restrict the CDGK from implementing the PSS.”

The DO said the implementation was constantly delayed for many reasons, especially because the CDGK had to pay a cumulative amount — the increment in the salaries would be calculated from 2006. The employees have been irked by the delay for a very long time. But officials reveal that the DCO and the administrator were bent on implementing the PSS. “They said that they will enforce it, no matter what,” they said, adding the ceremony might take place on Thursday.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2011.