HYDERABAD:
Doctors have threatened to boycott all of Sindh’s out-patient departments (OPDs) from Monday, if their demands for promotions are not met.
“We are giving the government until May 22 to take measures to implement the timescale formula,” warned members of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Sindh, at a press conference on Friday.
The doctors say that they know how difficult promoting all doctors is at one time, but a ‘timescale formula’ should be adopted immediately. This is based on how long each doctor has been working. “This will at least ensure that the backlog of promotions created in the past will be dispensed within the future,” said the doctors.
They claim that after they were appointed to grade 17, they were never promoted. “I was appointed at BPS-17 in 1988 and have been working in the same grade since then,” said the PMA general secretary, Dr Pir Manzoor Ali, to prove the point.
He said that a summary has been approved by the health department and Sindh chief minister and is pending with the finance department.
“These benefits will make a difference of around Rs2.83 billion to the province’s health budget,” he said quoting the summary.
At least 11,000 doctors await promotions while the PMA claims that the actual figure is 13,000.
A departmental promotions committee meeting was convened last week after a 15-year gap but the doctors were not satisfied with its outcome, said Dr Rafique Qureshi. “The committee only promoted 800 doctors. Though it is a big figure, it is still not even one-tenth of the total number of doctors who deserve promotion.”
The doctors want to replace the committee system with the timescale formula. “In contrast to the committee, which makes promotions when there are vacant posts, timescale envisages tenure-based promotions,” explained Dr Manzoor.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 21st, 2011.
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