ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: The medical officers (MOs), appointed by the health ministry in different state-run hospitals in May, have not been paid salaries since their joining, sources told Dawn.

They said the ministry had appointed at least 169 MOs in grade-17 on two years contract and posted them at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), Federal Government Services Hospital (FGSH), TB Centre, Rawalpindi, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical College and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICD), Karachi.

As many as 39 MOs were posted in Pims —- four in Mother and Care Hospital, eight in Children Hospital, three in Pims Satellite Hospital at the National Institute of Health, and 24 in Pims and over 35 MOs were posted in the FGSH.

The sources said the reason behind delay in salaries was that there was no mention of the MOs wages in the hospitals budget documents. The MOs have been appointed in May while the government made allocation of their salaries in the budget in July, the sources said, adding that the MOs were expected to get their salaries from the month of August.

Pims Deputy Executive Director Dr Amjad and FGSH Deputy Medical Superintendent Dr Iftikhar Naro said some doctors had lodged complaints with the hospital administrations that they had not been paid salaries.

They said salaries had not been given to those MOs, who had not submitted their documents to the departments concerned. They said the finance ministry had released salaries of the MOs soon after their joining and most of the MOs were paid salaries.