Daily Times

LAHORE: After a lapse of three-and-a-half years, the Punjab government has badly failed to pay arrears to lady health workers (LHWs), which was creating unrest among them besides hampering their performance across the province.

Sources privy to this development, on the condition of anonymity, said that the federal government started the LHW programme throughout the country in 1994 to strengthen family healthcare and family planning services.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan directed the government to regularise the services of LHWs. The Punjab Health Department implemented the court’s verdict and regularised the services of LHWs from July 2012.

The centre financed the programme till devolution of power to the provinces after the passage of 18th Amendment in 2010. The federal government asked the provinces to run the programme but pledged to continue funding till June 2017, after which the provinces would be responsible to finance the programme.

Punjab was facing an uphill task of paying dues to LHWs, as they were contractual employees and received fixed salaries. After regularisation of the services of LHWs, the provincial government sent several letters to the federal government to release the amount for payment of arrears to the programme’s employees.

According to the letter, an amount of Rs 5.665 billion was allocated during fiscal year (FY) 2012-15, which was decreased in FY 2015-16 to an amount of Rs 3.776 billion. Since July 1, 2012, the financial status of the project has been changed after adopting the scale-based salaries instead of fixed pay. There exists a total budgetary requirement of Rs 10.233 billion for FY 2015-16 whereas Rs 3.290 billion were additionally required to clear the liabilities pilled up from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2015. Sources said that the centre was reluctant to provide funds to the province, adding problems not only for around 48,000 LHWs but other staff members, including accountants, drivers and clerks as well.