Auqaf doctors’ request for pay raise denied

Finance Dept says allowance not for employees of autonomous bodies.

LAHORE:

The Finance Department has rejected a request from the Auqaf Department that its doctors get the same pay raises granted to Health Department doctors.

Four months ago, 30 doctors of Government Data Darbar Hospital presented an application to the medical superintendent asking that they be granted the health professionals allowance (HPA), granted to Health Department doctors in July. The medical superintendent and the Auqaf Department asked the Finance Department to address the issue.

The Finance Department rejected the request, stating that the HPA was only for Health Department doctors and could not be given to employees of autonomous bodies. A few days ago, the Auqaf chief administrator wrote another letter to the finance secretary arguing that doctors, whether employed by the Health or Auqaf Departments, provided the same services. He said that the Auqaf Department always adopted instructions issued by the Punjab government. He asked that the request for Auqaf doctors to get the HPA be reviewed. An Auqaf doctor told The Express Tribune that he and his colleagues were “totally dismayed”. He said that the government appeared only to respond to aggressive protests.

“The Health Department doctors went on strike for over a month and locked the emergency wards in hospitals,” he said. “We always behaved responsibly and respected the law. This is our reward.” He said that Auqaf Department doctors were weighing various options, including protests and legal challenge.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2011.