Anxiety as three dozen ministry employees being laid off

Islamabad : Around three dozen contractual employees of the planning and development ministry are battling severe stress and anxiety due to an imminent layoff after service of a decade and a half.

Employed for the ‘Monitoring of PSDP-Financed Projects’ initiative around 14 years ago, these 33 staff members of the Monitoring and Evaluation Wing will lose job in April.

Among them are a director general (BPS-20), two chief monitoring officers (BPS-19), a deputy director (BPS-18), two monitoring officers (BPS-18), one network administrator (BPS-17), six BPS-16, nine BPS-14 and two BPS-9 employees of various cadres, five drivers (BPS-5) and five naib qasids (BPS-2).

According to these temps, the ministry formally told them last October that their services weren’t required after December 31, 2019, before advertising fresh recruitment in newspapers.

As the hiring of staff took time, their contracts were extended for four months.

An official facing the axe told ‘The News’ that replacing those with extensive experience of the project with untrained people was strange.

“Our project has been introduced with a new name. This is much like putting old wine in a new bottle,” he said.

The official said the move also went against the current premier’s instructions for ending ad hocism in government departments and initiatives and putting in place permanent systems.

“When asked about the termination of experienced staff and the launch of the new project with the same functions, the ministry claimed that the old system needed to be replaced with the new one though the fact of the matter is that the system will remain the same with the ‘favourites’ of those at the helm replacing the current staff,” he insisted.

He said the people had voted the PTI to power believing their promise of creating millions of jobs but it had breached the promise by retrenchments.

Declaring the loss of job the most stressful experience in life, another official said Muhammad Hafeez, a steno typist (BPS-14) in the project, lost life last December after suffering a heart attack over the imminent layoff.

“Our colleague (steno typist) suffered from severe stress and anxiety after he got the termination notification,” he said.

The official said the project’s contractual employees had requested their top bosses for job security many times, but to no avail.

“Our positions have been re-advertised under a new project of the similar nature. It’s simply unfair. Our imminent retrenchment is negatively affecting the economic security and physical and mental health of our family members. We feel depressed and anxious about what the future holds for us and our families, especially children enrolled in schools and colleges,” he said.

The official said most employees of the project, who faced the axe, had no other means of livelihood and couldn’t apply for government jobs for being overage.

“We, the contractual staff members, have developed severe depression and anxiety disorders,” he said requesting the prime minister for intervention to ensure their job security.