Nowshera, Karak health workers demand salaries

NOWSHERA: The Lady Health Workers (LHW) on Friday staged a protest rally and sit-in against the non-payment of salaries and blocked the Grand Trunk Road for traffic for three hours.
They were chanting slogans against the provincial government, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan and officials of the Health Department. LHWs Zakia Bibi, Kausar Jabeen, Farida Bibi and others were leading the protesters.
They gathered at the Shobra Chowk, staged a sit-in there and blocked the Grand Trunk Road for traffic.
The speakers said the harbingers of change had withheld the salaries, promotion and upgradation of LHWs. They said their families were facing immense hardships in managing the domestic budget due to non-payment of the salaries. They asked the government to release their salaries and announce timescale and upgrade their services or else they would boycott of the upcoming anti-polio campaign.
The district health officer Nowshera and other officials held talks with the protesters. The LHWs dispersed peacefully after being assured.
PROTEST IN KARAK: The Lady Health Supervisors (LHSs) and LHWs in Karak have also demanded the release of their salaries, which they claimed had been stopped for the last two months.
They threatened to launch a protest movement by setting up a protest camp outside the office of the district health officer if their demands were not met within a week. The demand was made at a meeting of the LHSs and LHWs Association held here on Friday, with its district president Kalsoom Sultana in the chair. The meeting deplored that the nominal salaries of the health workers had been stopped by the Health Department for the last two months and that a notification for their regularisation had already been issued but it could not be implemented by the government during the last one year.