FAISALABAD: Nurses and paramedical staff at the DHQ hospital staged a protest demonstration on Tuesday against the administration for not issuing them salaries ahead of Eidul Azha.

Nurses also suspended their services for a brief period which created problems for the patients.

The protesters gathered near the hospital premises and chanted slogans against the administration which couldn’t arrange salaries for them.

Talking to reporters, they said the Punjab government had promised full salary ahead of the Eid so that employees could meet their expenses. However, they said the administration couldn’t complete the legal formalities so that the government could transfer salaries. Like nurses and paramedics, they said salaries were not issued to doctors as well.

A doctor requesting anonymity told Dawn it was true that despite promise salaries were not released which would create financial problems for the staff.

He said it was the responsibility of the hospital administration to ensure issuance of the salaries but to no avail.

DHQ Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Asif Saleemi said the Punjab government had transferred the budget and the hospital administration deposited the [salaries] cheques with the district accounts office, which cleared the cheques on Monday at 4:30pm.

He said the same day the cheques were deposited with the drawing and disbursing accounts which could not be cleared due to the shortage of time.

Now the staff would get salaries after Eid, he added.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2021