Sindh cabinet enhances remuneration of doctors

KARACHI :The Sindh Cabinet in a meeting chaired by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah taking a difficult but historic decision has decided to bring the remuneration of doctors of Sindh government at par with doctors of Punjab at an annual cost of Rs5.6 billion. The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, all provincial ministers, advisors to chief minister, special assistants, Advocate General Sindh and other concerned officers .However, the cabinet discussed the matter thoroughly and most of the cabinet members were of the view that the enhancement of salary package must be based on performance, punctuality and readiness to serve in hard areas wherever they services are required. The health department presented an agenda in the cabinet to provide existing remuneration being paid to doctors of the Sindh government (BPS-17 to BPS-20), house job officers, and postgraduate students in line with existing remuneration of the government of Punjab. The chief minister intervened and said that the decision to revise the remuneration of the doctors was quite difficult for him keeping in view the financial impact but “we want to meet this demand of the doctors on the hope that they would serve to their best abilities,” he said.Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho and Secretary health briefed the cabinet about the proposal under which Rs10,000 per month would be given to postgraduate candidates in addition to their exiting remuneration. Rs15,000 per month would also be added in the exiting stipend. The health department would also revise the remuneration of all serving doctors from grade B-17 to grade B-20 and will bring them the remuneration at par with the remuneration of doctor serving in the Punjab, if the cabinet approves.The cabinet approved the proposal under which monthly special health allowance of Rs10,000 to be given to doctors of Grade BPS-17 and grade 18 and Rs5,000 to the doctors of grade BPS-19 and 20.The health professional allowance has been enhanced from Rs23,851 to Rs28,472 for grade 17, from Rs15,956 to Rs19,175 for grade BPS-18, from Rs15,935 to Rs19,100 for grade BPS-19 and from Rs15,961 to Rs19,192 for grade PBS-20 doctors. Every doctor would get two allowance, professional and special health care allowances, therefore the total impact would come to Rs5.6 billion. The health department told the cabinet that the MoU between health department and Peoples Primary Health Initiative (PPHI) has expired on December 12, 2018. The PPHI was managing 1176 health facilities throughout Sindh with the support of the Sindh government. The cabinet was told that the Chief Executive Officer of PPHI has initiated a request for renewal of MoU for another period of five years with effect from December 2018 to December 2023. The cabinet approved the request and decided to conduct third party audit and sharing of the PPHI expenditures. The Sindh Cabinet was told that North Karachi Children Hospital contracted out to Poverty Eradication Initiative (PEI). When the administration of the hospital was handed over to PEI it was also given Rs439.82 million as first tranche with the condition that the next tranche would be released after receiving the audit report. The auditors had raised some objections therefore further release of funds was stopped. Now, all the audit paras have been cleared, therefore the cabinet approved release of another tranche of funds.It was decided to revisit the agreement between the health department and the PEI and revise some clauses. Other issues were also discussed and reviewed included KMDC upgraded to university, Aror Varsity bill approval, Safe house establishment for distressed women, establishment of Occupational safety and health Council Sindh was also approved. Also reviewed and discussed were issues of Restoration of city to old plan along with other issues related to Sindh.

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