LAHORE: Despite the tall claims of providing extraordinary services of free vaccination and service centres by the government, employees of major government departments have not yet been vaccinated against Covid-19, Pakistan Today learnt.
According to the documents obtained from Punjab Home Department, the total number of senior and junior personnel in the Punjab Police was 146,200 out of which 41,414 personnel have not yet been vaccinated against Covid-19.
However, all 12,802 personnel of the Punjab Prisons Department have been vaccinated. Similarly, all 195 employees of Punjab Probation and Parole Services have also been vaccinated.
The documents further said that all 471 employees of the Directorate of Civil Defense and all 80 employees of the Directorate of Monitoring had been vaccinated. However, 21 out of 518 employees of the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau have not yet been vaccinated while out of the total 644 employees of Punjab Forensic Science Agency, 3 employees have not been vaccinated yet.
In a document obtained from Evacuee Trust Property Board, it was revealed that there were 1660 employees out of only 1156 employees have submitted their vaccination certificates against Covid-19. However, the board has decided to hold the salary of that 504 unvaccinated employees until they submit a vaccination certificate.
Some top officials of Punjab Police informed this scribe that even the government has made the policy to hold the salary of unvaccinated staff but despite this policy many of the personnel were unvaccinated.
In Punjab Police, despite the policy, everyone is getting paid whether they are vaccinated or not. These vaccinated personnel can spread the coronavirus in the department as well as in the public, a source told.
It is very important for all police personnel to be vaccinated as these people also go for various operations, go to the courts and also go to the public, the source added.
A major factor is the lack of vaccination of police personnel, many of whom are from rural areas where all forms of vaccination are opposed. Similarly, many police officers working in rural areas are not even familiar with the name of vaccination, the source further claimed.
On the other hand, a senior Punjab Services and General Administration Department official believed that the situation was not as bad as it seems.
“Many government departments had started requiring their staff to submit their vaccination certificates to the relevant departments the day after the policy was introduced and those who did not get vaccinated should be vaccinated in any case. In many departments, the salaries of officials who were not vaccinated were also withheld. There are examples of ETPB, education department, health department, hospital staff and many more. We have fully implemented this policy even in the Punjab Secretariat and almost all the staff here are vaccinated,” he said.
