Withholding rights: LHWs hold protests in different cities

BANNU: Lady Health Workers, drivers and supervisors of the Health department held protests against the government across Mardan, Bannu, Karak and Charsadda on Friday. The protesters demanded their salaries and other incentives be provided at the earliest. According to the LHWs’ representatives, their jobs should have been permanent as per a Supreme Court order, but not a single worker benefited from this since July 2012. They have also not been given their salaries since the last four months. The protesters issued a 48-hour deadline to the government and threatened to boycott all health- related projects including polio eradication drives in the districts. The protesters also demanded the government make their positions permanent as per the apex court’s orders. The LHWs said they would not hesitate in holding sit-ins across Peshawar and Islamabad if their demands were not met.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2015.