Hiring on certain posts in health dept allowed

LAHORE:The Punjab government Wednesday lifted the ban imposed on recruitment of monitoring and evaluation assistants and coordinators in the Department of Primary and Secondary Health, also allowing hiring of the CEO and filling other vacant administrative seats of the FIEDMC.

The decision was made in the 61st meeting of the Cabinet Standing Committee on Finance and Development chaired by Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht at the Chief Minister's Secretariat. The meeting was attended by Provincial Minister for Industry and Commerce Aslam Iqbal, Planning and Development Chairman Abdullah Sanbal, Finance Secretary Iftikhar Ali Saho and the secretaries of relevant departments.

More than 14 recommendations were made by various departments in the committee while the meeting also approved a joint project of the local government and the World Bank for improvement of water and sanitation system. Further, the proposal of the Mines and Minerals Department for the treatment of the widow of the late Khalid Mahmood Siddiqui was also approved by the meeting. The meeting approved the funds for purchase of equipment for cardiac facilities at Children's Hospital Multan and grant-in-aid for 12 patients who lost their eyesight due to negligence of doctors.

The finance minister asked what legal action was initiated against the people involved in negligence which resulted in making 12 people blind. He observed that the loss and sufferings of the blind patients could not be remedied but it was necessary to discourage such incidents in order to protect the people from such losses in future.