The Finance Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on Thursday refused to disperse the additional one-month’s salary to the medical personnel who are putting their lives in danger while treating Covid-19 patients.
Earlier, the KP government had stated that during the coronavirus lockdown, the employees on duty will be given an additional one-month salary. It announced awards for doctors, paramedical staff, nurses, rescue 1122, civil defense, PARSA, police and employees of the KP local government department. Now, the finance department is refusing to pay the amount under the pretense that they are facing a financial crunch due to Covid-19.
The Department in a letter sent all over the province has said, “The province’s revenue and federal payments have been significantly reduced while existing funds have been transferred to the Department of Health, Rehabilitation and Resettlement to take steps to control the situation.”
It added that the department can’t pay any form of compensation during the ongoing fiscal year and the requests by the departments for honorarium will not be processed.
Dr. Alamgir Khan, Patron and Chief, said,
Neither the provincial government nor the federal health department has provided any facility to these employees. We’re not expecting anything from the present government as it has failed to even provide safety kits to frontline doctors.
Alamgir said that they had been sent safety gears by charities. “Although none of us expects any honorarium, it does not change the fact that this is injustice with those who are working round the clock during the outbreak and putting their family at the risk of death”.
