LAHORE: The Punjab government has abolished 1,008 grade-17 contract seats of Emergency Medical Officers (EMOs) across the province, rendering them jobless in one go just a few days before Eidul Fitr.

The Primary & Secondary Healthcare Department Punjab issued a notification on March 14, 2026.

As per official documents, the seats of EMOs were created in February and June 2018 and the hiring was done through interviews for their postings at district and tehsil headquarters hospitals on a contract basis. They assumed their assignments against morning, evening and night shifts in the emergency wards of the public sector hospitals.

The health department had offered Rs150,000 lump sum pay package to emergency medical officers with five per cent annual increase.

A senior official said that a majority of the EMOs were hired in Feb 2018 while others in June the same year.

Hired on contract in 2018, EMOs told to sit PPSC exam

He said initially the department had awarded them a two-year contract which was later curtailed to one year. He said the medics working against the positions in question faced discrimination when the department denied them five per cent promised annual increase.

The official further said as per rules the employees working on a contract basis in Punjab were eligible for regularisation after a period of three years.

The Punjab government had on May 10, 2019 approved an amendment to the regularisation of contractual employees announcing that an employee will be able to get permanent work status with a three-year contract.

Earlier to these amendments, a four year time frame was maintained to earn a permanent work status against a government job. The Cabinet Wing had issued minutes of meeting following the decision of the then chief minister of Punjab and even announced the approval.

In sheer violation of these rules, he said, the EMOs who had worked continuously for three consecutive years were not only denied regularisation but also rendered jobless in the March 14 notification. The official said that the department has conveyed to the management of the hospitals concerned that the male and female doctors hired on Feb 2018 as EMOs would not be granted further contract extension.

While those who got appointments in June 2018 were allowed to continue their services till the expiry of their contractual agreement in June 2026. He said that the number of the EMOs who got postings in June 2018 were not more than two dozen.

When contacted, a senior official of the health department clarified that

1,008 positions of the EMOs have been re-designated as medical officers/women medical officers across Punjab.

Sharing a copy of the notification, he said that the provincial cabinet in its meeting held on December 15, 2025, had approved “the Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Services (Secondary Level Human Resource) Rules, 2025” for hiring secondary-level human resources under a Special Pay Package.

Following the decision, he said that the Punjab finance department had accorded its concurrence to the creation of 1,008 posts of medical/women medical officers (Special Pay Package) for the DHQ/THQ hospitals in lieu of the abolition of the same number of posts of emergency medical officers.

To a question, he said that EMOs hired in 2018 would not be adjusted against newly-created positions rather they have to sit Public Service Commission exams.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2026