KARACHI, Jan 1: More than 1,000 Grade-17 doctors of the Sindh government have been awaiting promotions despite the fact that, in most cases, their length of service is twice than what is required under the law.

Official sources told Dawn on Wednesday that most of these doctors had been working with the Sindh government for the past 14 years in Grade 17 in spite of the fact that there were at least 500 vacant Grade-18 posts.

They explained that under the rules there were four criteria for deciding which doctor deserved to be promoted to the next grade. “The first criterion is availability of posts. The second is the length of service, which is seven years in the case of promotion from Grade 17 to Grade 18. The third is the annual confidential report. The fourth factor is the absence of any inquiry against a candidate.”

The sources pointed out that it was the inability of the Sindh government to hold meetings of the Departmental Promotion Committee on a regular basis, which was largely responsible for such a great delay in the promotion of Grade-17 doctors who belonged to the general cadre. The other cadres were those of teaching staff and specialists.

The sources said that because of this delay all those Grade-17 doctors who were eligible for promotion were facing a monetary loss. “The basic salary of a doctor who is at the lowest rung of Grade 17 is Rs6,200 per month. After as many as 20 years, his basic salary becomes Rs15,000.”

The secretary-general of the Pakistan Medical Association, Dr Shershah, said a large number of senior doctors did not write the annual confidential reports of their subordinates, thus depriving them of a chance to get promoted to the next grade. “A doctor’s annual confidential report is written by his immediate boss as well as by the head of the institution he is working with. It is the responsibility of the senior doctors to write the annual confidential reports of their juniors on a yearly basis. Quite often a doctor has to do a lot of running around to get his annual confidential report written.”

He said that it was also the responsibility of the Sindh government to hold the meetings of the Departmental Promotion Committee on a regular basis. He added that the government should plan the career of doctors to enhance their productivity.

The sources said it was red tape which prevented the regular holding of the meetings of the departmental promotion committee. “Sometimes senior doctors who have the required length of service do not submit their annual confidential report to the departmental promotion committee because they know that their report is so bad that they would not get promotion. While this does not impair their seniority, it causes a meeting of the departmental promotion committee to be put off to another date. Quite often a number of months elapse before the next meeting of the departmental promotion committee is held.”