HARIPUR: Guards of the Haripur district headquarters hospital have complained that they haven’t been paid salary for three months.

They told Dawn on condition of anonymity that they’re hired by a private security agency on contractual basis before being posted to the DHQ Hospital three months ago but hadn’t been paid since then.

The guards said nonpayment of salary had caused serious financial problems for them.

They said their repeated requests to their employer for payments fell on deaf ears.

When contacted, medical superintendent of the hospital Dr Mohsin Raza Turabi confirmed the assertion of the guards.

He said the PMIU, a health department project, outsourced security and janitorial services of 29 hospitals to private companies last year but stopped payments to those companies over complaints about wages.

“I spoke to the PMIU officials lately about a delay in payments to guards and was promised disbursements in the next couple of days,” he said.

Dr Turabi said the province’s financial crisis also contributed to the issue.

Meanwhile, Public Forum Haripur leaders Musharraf Hazarvi, Dr Farhan and Tahir Amin announced that the organisation would provide legal support to guards on the salary issue.

LAUNCHED: Educationist Dr Muhaimin launched a collection of his Urdu columns at the Hakeem Abdul Salam Library here on Sunday.

The columns totalling 100 were published by local dailies in the last one and a half years and were compiled under the title Shan-i-Kaee.

Poets, educationists, journalists, university students and social activists attended the function and praised Dr Muhaimin, the head of the department of Islamic Studies at the University of Haripur, for highlighting the local and national issues in their writings and holding workshops and lectures to build the capacity of journalists.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2023