PESHAWAR, May 9: Lady Health Workers (LHWs) and supervisors called to perform duty along with women police at polling stations on May 11 have expressed their unwillingness due to their personal security concerns.
“ Some have fears about their own security since they have been called to perform duty at bordering areas with tribal areas, while others feel simply uneasy about this job,” said one of the lady health supervisors (LHS), who supervises around 13 LHWs, on condition of anonymity.
These workers are caught up in a will-nilly situation since they are government servants and cannot refuse to perform the duty.
“Some of my colleagues have decided that they would not perform the duty even if they have to quit the job,” said the supervisor based in Peshawar.
According to official data, there are total 9,000 polling stations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and about 1,878 of these had been declared highly sensitive and 3,000 sensitive.
In view of the shortage of women police in the province the provincial government has decided that 10 policemen would be deployed at each highly sensitive polling station, six at sensitive polling station and four at normal polling station.
The LHWs, who had earlier been running polio vaccination campaign, are being deployed as security staff since the province lacks enough policemen required to be deployed for the election day duty. Against a total requirement of 85,000 policemen, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has 79,000 policemen for the polling day duty.
There are around 13,400 LHWs and lady health supervisors. Their services were regularized in BPS-5 and BPS-7 just a few months ago.
However, they complain that they have not been paid their salaries for the last three months. The LHWs are also performing duties in polio vaccination campaign, which was targeted by militants.
The LHWs have been running from pillar to post to get their duties as security staff at polling stations cancelled.
They said that they could not risk their lives when they lacked training for the job.
