Punjab govt, LHWs reach agreement to end sit-in protest

LAHORE (92 News) – Lady health workers (LHWs) on Thursday called off their sit-in protest near Charing Cross at the Mall Road in Lahore after successful negotiations with Punjab Law Minister Basharat Raja. According to the details, Punjab’s lady health workers union’s president Rukhsana Anwar said that it is an historic day for us as our 25-year-old issue has been resolved. Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has formed a committee to address the issues of lady heath workers after the successful dialogues between Punjab Law Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja and the protesters. CM Buzdar appointed Punjab law minister Basharat Raja as head of the redressal committee while health minister, finance secretary and other officials were the part of the committee. The committee would review service structure of the lady heath workers and would devise a comprehensive strategy to meet the demands of the protestors. It is worth mentioning here that the LHWs from different districts of Punjab were protesting near Charing Cross at the Mall Road in Lahore for the past four days demanding demanding of the government to revise their service structure, scale up-gradation, regularization of ad hoc employees and payment of outstanding salaries. Earlier, the protesters said that they would continue their protest till acceptance of their demands, including up-gradation of pay scale, revival of service structure and lifting of the ban on fresh recruitments. “We demand basic pay scale 14 for lady health supervisor, 7 for lady health workers and 6 for drivers,” said a lady worker. “Our job is very tough but we are not given the deserved compensation. We were promised all benefits in 2012 but we are still waiting for the compensation.” They complained that directors of this program are receiving hefty salaries per month and do nothing but the government is not willing to raise their salaries and provide other small benefit to women workers who perform duties from dawn to dusk.