Polyclinic finally regularises junior technicians

Islamabad :Long-distraught over job insecurity, the Polyclinic’s several dozen junior technicians have heaved a euphoric sigh of relief with the notification of their service regularisation on the court’s orders.

Totalling 56, these BPS-9 staff members had begun working at the pharmacies, laboratories, blood bank and operation theatres of the city’s major government hospital in 2013 after clearing written tests and interviews.

Despite possessing the formal appointment letters, they were however stopped from formally ‘joining’ the duty over the alleged anomalies in recruitment. The junior technicians stayed put amid litigation.

In 2016, the Islamabad High Court declared their recruitment lawful prompting the hospital to declare them the staff members working on provisional basis and allow them to formally ‘join’ the duty.

Though entitled to salary and allowances admissible to other such federal government employees as stated in the appointment letters, these technicians weren’t paid due to the pendency of the matter in the court.

There followed protests and strikes until July last year when they got the sought-after relief after the court ordered the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), which oversees the hospital, to make the due payments to them in line with the law.

Now, after serving the one-year probation period and getting the subsequent service extension, these junior technicians stand relieved as well as jubilant to see the administration regularise their services on the Islamabad High Court’s orders and the CADD’s subsequent approval.

They’ll continue working on the current positions as ordered by Polyclinic executive director Dr Shahid Hanif, who is empowered by the rules to recruit staff members up to BPS-14 on his own.

When contacted, spokesman for the hospital Dr Sharif Astori confirmed the development and said not only would the service regularisation give junior technicians a sense of security at workplace but it would ensure better patient care as well.

Our correspondent adds: As many as 2,500 high-achieving students of the government colleges in the Islamabad Capital Territory are set to get laptops under an initiative of the prime minister.

Launched in 2013-14, the Prime Minister’s Laptops Scheme is meant for ‘talented students’ with the objective of furthering the cause of research and education in the country and increasing the youths' access to information technology.

The small portable computers are given away to students of intermediate and degree programmes on merit, which is based on their results in the latest board examinations. They’re distributed to colleges on the basis of the number of applicants instead of enrolments.

The Higher Education Commission is the executing agency responsible for developing criteria, mechanism, modalities and a road map for procurement and distribution of laptops under the scheme.

The ICT government colleges overseen by the Federal Directorate of Education will distribute until May 28 the laptops to their respective students selected for the scheme. According to an official of the FDE, most of the laptops i.e. 359 will go to the Islamabad Model Postgraduate College for Girls, F-7/2 to be followed by the Islamabad Model Postgraduate College for Girls, F-7/4 with 214 laptops and Islamabad College for Boys, G-6/3 with 204 laptops.

Among other colleges getting laptops for high-achieving students are G-10/4 IMCG (196 laptops), F-6/2 ICG (190), Humak IMCG (165), F-10/2 IMCG (148), H-8/4 IMCC (144), H-8 IMC (126), F-6/2 IMCG (125), H-9 IMCB (108), F-7/4 IMCG (96), Bhara Kahu IMCG (81), H-9 Federal College of Education (76), I-8/3 IMCG (67), F-10/3 Islamabad Model College of Commerce for Girls (61), F-10/4 IMCB (53), I-14/3 IMCG (30), Sihala IMCB (29) and F-7/2 Federal Government College of Home Economics and Management Sciences (28).