Workers still without pay at cardiac centre

This is the sixth Eid the affected employees are going through without salaries

ISLAMABAD: Assisting in an open heart surgery she stands apparently attentive but her heart and mind is preoccupied with thoughts about her kids, and her penurious circumstances

A sharp rebuke by the surgeon for passing on a wrong surgical instrument makes her flinch and jolts her back to reality.

Payments of utility bills, house rent and fees of her children are constant worries that keep her mind perturbed.



Being a single mother she finds it hard to make both ends meet since her salary was stopped over two years ago. Now there is not a single colleague or relative from whom she hasn’t borrowed money.

Recently her 12 year old son and 13 years old daughter were struck off twice from the school register because of non-payment of 3-4 months fees. “I have asked my kids to skip the August 14 school function because I don’t have money to buy them green dress and flags as asked by the teachers”.

I fear my kids will celebrate upcoming Eid like this, says the troubled woman who works as a nurse at the cardiac centre of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims). Forthcoming Eid will be the 6th Eid of these aggrieved health experts who can be described as pioneers of the cardiac centre but working without salaries since June 30, 2015 when their contracts expired.

The cardiac center had hired about 37 employees of different cadres when it started operations some 12 years ago. Later some employees left due to ineffective response of the government.  In 2016 the regularisation committee of government regularised the services of some 22 employees of grade 15 and below but the 9 employees of higher grade were not regularised nor their contracts renewed.

Of them three are nurses, three medical officers, one cardiac surgeon, one interventional cardiologist and a perfusionist. Interventional cardiologist and surgeons are earning a lucrative income through private practice at both public and private hospitals but the nurses are the worst sufferers especially those who are single parents.

The cardiac center is the only public sector facility for heart patients not only for residents of Islamabad but surrounding cities also. Even patients from Balochistan, Fata, D.G Khan and Gilgit-Baltistan come for treatment. Over 100 visit outpatient department daily while 40 to 50 angiography and angioplasty procedures and open-heart surgeries are done weekly.



On June 19 the Islamabad High Court had constituted a committee headed by finance secretary to submit report in 30 days on why the services of pioneering employees of the centre were not regularised when all the relevant ministries had no objection and need their services. But even after 50 days the committee has not started work. On recent hearing on August 10 the court has given the government two weeks time on request of assistant attorney general.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 14^th, 2017.