Pakistan's Punjab province unable to pay salaries of health workers, medics stage protests, block highway in Multan

Multan [Pakistan]: Lady health workers in Pakistan's Punjab province blocked the Multan-Muzaffargarh Highway demanding their pending salaries and protested against the government's plan to dismiss 6,000 employees from jobs who had been rendering services for the last 15 years, reported The News International.

The employees were working under the Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department in the maternal and child healthcare program of IRMNCH, said the Pakistani publication. The employees, recruited by the Punjab province in the remote backward areas, reportedly provide services under extremely difficult conditions and settled in the ruins and deserted centres in the forests, these employees have not received their salaries for the last eight months.

Punjab province's Health Department under the guise of black laws has hinted at laying off 6,000 employees and an advertisement has been issued for fresh recruitment.

Protesting health workers urged the Punjab Chief Minister, the Health Minister and Secretary, Primary and Secondary Health Care Punjab, to immediately regularise the remaining employees and save them from mental anguish, according to The News International. (ANI)