SHANGLA: Lady health workers, their supervisors and the support staff on Monday announced the boycott of duties, including the anti-polio campaigns, to protest the non-payment of salary for last eight months.

The announcement was made by Shahid Ahmad, provincial general secretary of the lady health workers’ association, while addressing a press conference in Bisham on Monday.

Mr Ahmad said after consultation with all government employees’ coordination council’s provincial president Aslam Khan, provincial president of the LHWs association Almin Iftikhar took the decision of duty boycott.

He said LHWs problems had increased over the past five years as the government neither regularised them nor paid salary to them on time.

“We (the project-based employees) have not received our salary for last eight months,” Mr Ahmad said, adding that there were total 17,000 regular LHWs and 4,000 associated with the integrated health project, who were recruited after 2015. He said despite the court orders the government had yet to regularise the project-based LHWs.

Fazilat, a lady health supervisor from Alpuri, said that LHWs were hard hit financially due to non-payment of salary.

She said the health department had even failed to provide stationery to LHWs, and forced them to perform duties in hard terrains.

Fazilat said the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2018 and Peshawar High Court in 2016 had directed the government to regularise LHWs recruited from 2015 onwards, but the court orders could not be implemented till date.

Azeema Bibi, LHW supervisor from Puran, said the association’s provincial leadership had taken up the issue with the department concerned and ministers several times, and also held protests in Peshawar, but to no avail.

The LHWs said that their boycott of anti-polio campaigns and routine duties would continue till their pending salary was paid.

They also said that their colleagues were recording protests at the offices of district health officers across the province.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2025

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