HYDERABAD: Lady health workers (LHWs) staged a protest sit-in on Wednesday against non-issuance of offer orders for regularisation of their services and non-payment of two-month salaries.

The protest was organised by the Sindh chapter of the All Pakistan Lady Health Worker Employees Associ­ation.

The protesters held a two-hour sit-in outside the local press club and raised slogans against the federal and provincial governments.

They demanded immediate disbursement of their salaries and arrears as per the apex court’s ruling.

Jehangir Tarejo, Halima Leghari and Shama Gulani, the general secretary, provincial and provincial general secretary of the association, respectively, said the Supreme Court had 16 months ago ordered regularisation of the staff of the National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Healthcare, launched in 1994. But the authorities concerned had failed to implement the order so far, they said.

They said that the affected staff numbering 24,068 and comprised 22,576 LHWs, 770 lady health supervisors, 688 drivers and 34 account supervisors.

They demanded that payment of salaries according to the pay-scale after issuance of permanent appointment letters.

They expressed their determination to continue the protest until their demands were met.

Provincial coordinator of the NPFP&PH Dr Roshan Bhatti and assistant coordinator Dr Pir Ghulam Hussain along with their subordinate staff visited the protesters and assured them that the offer letters would be issued before Sept 25 while the pending salaries would be disbursed soon.

The protesters ended their sit-in but warned that if the authorities reneged on their promise, the affected staff would boycott the the five-day anti-polio campaign starting on Sept 29 and besiege the office of the provincial coordinator in Hyderabad on Oct 1.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2014