GUJRAT: The government employees above 50 years have sought an exemption from working in the offices and asked the Punjab government to issue clear directions to the respective heads of the departments as well as divisional and district administrations to define the categories of those who can work from home and office.

The Punjab government had earlier issued a notification on Saturday that 50pc of the government staff would work in the office and remaining would discharge their duty from home after a spike in the coronavirus patients.

Gujrat, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Sargodha and Multan are the cities where cases are increasing at an alarming ratio.

Many senior officers and officials say the order is short of clarity and guidelines as which category of the staff will attend the office and who will work from home.

Some officials of the administration and government departments said the staff above 50 years was vulnerable for already having health issues. They said the ratio of seriously infected patients of Covid-19 or those who had died of the pandemic was also high in the said age group so the government should have bifurcated the employees by keeping in view the age and those already facing serious health issues or weaknesses to save them from the pandemic.

An administrative officer on condition of anonymity told Dawn that even when previously the government had issued directions of 50pc staff to work from home, the departmental heads and administrative bosses in the division and districts did not follow the guidelines in letter and spirit by asking for the whole staff’s presence.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2021