Doctors, paramedics of capital's hospitals: Prime Minister announces grant of additional basic salary

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday announced a grant of one basic salary for doctors and paramedics of federal hospitals in addition to their existing salaries with effect from January 2012. He made the announcement in the National Assembly while giving a policy statement regarding the strike of doctors and paramedics in various government hospitals falling under federal government.
Gilani said that a number of meetings had taken place with establishment division and finance ministry to resolve the problems being faced by the doctors and paramedical staff. He said the announcement of grant of one additional basic pay to the health officials is part of efforts to provide better facilities to them. The matter was raised by Asia Nasir of JUI-F who called upon the prime minister to resolve the issue.
The prime minister also announced that meeting of the National Assembly scheduled for Saturday (today) to pass the 20th Constitutional Amendment Bill has been postponed in wake of 12th Rabi-ul-Awal, which now would held on Monday. Meanwhile, responding to a call attention notice, Minister for Vocational and Professional Training Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada informed the House that the federal government was taking steps to check the use of spurious drugs and quackery practices in the country despite the devolution of Health subject to the provinces.
He said that District Health and Drug Officers in the provinces were responsible to arrest the quacks and verify their degrees. He stressed the need for enactment of a law envisaging strict punishment for the fake doctors. In the Federal Capital, he said that the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration had geared up its efforts to check quackery practices and in this regard raids have been conducted in different sectors. During the last one-year, he said, actions were taken against 33 illegal license holders and drug stores.
He said the federal and the provincial governments needed to work in unison and launch a joint campaign against the companies involved in production of spurious drugs. The call attention notice was moved by Nawab Abdul Ghani Talpur and others regarding increasing numbers of quacks in federal capital.