Health workers promised two months’ salary

Six protestors faint during a rally in Lahore.

LAHORE:

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Saturday directed the Health Department to immediately release lady health workers’ salaries for two months. A Health Department spokesman said Health Secretary Jehanzeb Khan would ensure that the salaries were released within a day and submit a report in this regard.

Lady health workers throughout the Punjab have not been paid their salaries for four months. On Saturday, protests were organised by LHWs against nonpayment of their salaries in all major cities of the province.

In Lahore, the protestors were baton-charged for insisting on a sit-in in front of the Governor’s House and refusing to disperse.

Six of the workers were hospitalised after they fainted. A spokesman of the government said Sharif had ordered an inquiry into police action and allegedly unwarranted use of force.

Around 350 protesting workers were earlier prevented from leaving Lawrence Gardens where they had gathered to walk to the Governor’s House.

The protesting workers had raised slogans against the government and threatened to boycott the anti-polio vaccination and dengue fever awareness campaigns in the province. They said they had not received salaries for four months and that some of them had been working on contract for over 15 months. They demanded that the government regularise their services and release their salaries.

Police set up barriers and blocked access to The Mall near the Governor’s House. Some of the protestors, however, managed to push past the police and reach The Mall.

Traffic remained suspended at The Mall for several hours and resumed only after the protesters dispersed.

Opposition Leader Raja Riaz, who was leading a sit-in organised by Peoples Party opposite Chief Minister’s Secretariat, also joined the health workers’ protest briefly. He assured the workers of his support before leaving the scene.

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