National Commission for Human Development: Fearing redundancy, employees demand permanent jobs

No budget earmarked for the organisation for the new financial year.


Express June 11, 2011

HYDERABAD:


The National Commission for Human Development’s (NCHD) Employees Action Committee has demanded permanent jobs.


The workers fear redundancy since neither the federal nor Sindh governments has earmarked a budget for the organisation. “The government should resolve the uncertainty about the future of NCHD and its employees,” said Abdul Fateh Moro, the action committee’s secretary, at a press conference on Saturday.

The NCHD was set up through a presidential ordinance in 2002 to support education and healthcare by working with government and non-governmental organisations in all the 134 districts of Pakistan.

The project wound up in August 2008 but after protests, it was revived in February 2009 for a period of three years up to June 2012. According to Fateh, the federal cabinet division also approved a proposal of Rs8.15 billion.

The Sindh government assured us they would adopt the project, at a Council of Common Interest (CCI) meeting in Islamabad on June 2, said Fateh. “But it was the other provinces that turned down the devolution proposal,” he explained. Over 17,000 employees are working for NCHD in Pakistan, while 6,611 workers are employed in Sindh.

According to Fateh, the employees have not received their salaries since January 2011 and the government did not release money for other expenditures. “The government said flood rehabilitation expenses held back the payments. Later, we were told that NCHD’s transfer to the provinces has been planned,” said Fateh. He said the prime minister had assured NCHD’s Chairman Dr Nafisa Shah that the federal government would clear all liabilities by June 30, 2011.

The NCHD is hopeful that they will be merged with the Sindh education ministry after June 30 but they will continue their struggle for the sake of employees working in the other provinces. “We will observe hunger strikes, block highways and railway tracks and organise sit-ins outside the assemblies, senate and chief minister and governor houses to pursue our demands,” added Fateh.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2011.

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