ISLAMABAD: The issue of ceiling/hiring allowance of about 450 employees of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) could not be resolved even after a year.

Under the facility, if an official accommodation is not available, government employees can hire private houses and get the rent paid through their departments.

An official of Pims requesting not to be identified said the hospital employees were not entitled to government accommodations through the Estate Office.

VC says all dues will be paid in the current fiscal year

“The employees have no choice but to hire private houses in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi and the management of Pims pays the rent directly to the owners,” he said.

But the payment of the allowance by the hospital management was stopped in May 2013, he said.

A doctor of Pims on condition of anonymity added that he had been paying the rent to the house owner from his pocket.

“I have hired a house at Margalla Town for Rs17,000 per month. Under the agreement, the owner was to receive Rs14,000 from the hospital and Rs3,000 from me,” he said.

But because of the delay in the payment from the hospital, the owner has asked me either to vacate the house or pay the rent. “I have no choice but to pay the whole rent from my pocket,” he said.

“There are a number of employees who cannot afford paying the rent, so they have sent their families to their native cities and are living in private hostels,” he said.

Another doctor said that last year the management had told the employees that just after the announcement of the budget, the Ministry of Finance imposed a 30 per cent cut on the hospital’s budget.

This year the government has not announced any cut but still the management is not paying the hiring allowance, he added.

When contacted, Vice Chancellor Pims Dr Javed Akram told Dawn that they had decided to clear all the hiring allowance bills from the current year’s budget.

“Funds could not be released to Pims from the AGPR because of some complication but now that complication has been removed. As a first priority, we paid stipends to the trainees and now funds for the hiring allowance will be released,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2014