PESHAWAR, July 13: Non-payment of salary to contract employees of the Hayatabad Medical Complex is causing them immense hardship, health workers said.

About 50 contract employees, including doctors, paramedics and clerks, are running from pillar to post to get their salaries for the month of June.

"All regular employees have received their salaries on July 1, but the contract employees are still waiting for the same," said an anaesthesia assistant, who has been working on contract basis at the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) for the last two years.

He said he was the sole earner in his six-member family. A ward orderly said that late payment of salaries to the contract employees had become quite a routine, which haunted the staff every month.

He said that he had to obtain a loan from his friends and relatives. Meanwhile, an official at the accounts section of the HMC told Dawn that there was some problem at the treasury department. He said that they needed about Rs500,000 for paying the contract employees. But the amount was yet to be released, he added.