The Sindh Health Department has made it compulsory for its government employees to register on the Human Resource Management Information System portal, setting a ten-day deadline for the process to be completed. The order applies to all government employees in Grade 16 and above working under the department, and it was issued through a circular that has now gone out to offices and hospitals across the province. Employees who have not yet registered must complete their enrolment within the ten days, while those who are already on the system have been told to upload the documents that are still missing from their records.
The department took the step after finding that a considerable number of employees had still not signed up on the portal, even though registration had been required for some time. Others had registered but left their records incomplete, and the circular pointed in particular to leave documents that had been uploaded only in part. The gaps matter because the portal is meant to hold a complete and up-to-date record of each employee, and incomplete entries weaken the system the department is trying to build. By fixing a firm deadline, the department is now pressing staff to bring their records in order without further delay.
The circular also makes it clear that the requirement is not optional. Employees who miss the deadline will be treated as absent from duty, and disciplinary action will follow for disobeying an official order. That is a serious consequence for a government servant, since absence from duty and disciplinary proceedings can affect service records, pay and prospects of promotion. The warning is meant to leave no doubt that the department expects full compliance within the ten days, and it places the responsibility squarely on each employee to complete the process in time.
The HRMIS portal is the department’s digital system for managing its workforce, and it handles leave applications and approvals, transfers and other administrative and disciplinary matters for officers and employees in grades 16 to 20. The move towards the portal has been building for some months. From September 1 this year, all officers and employees in those grades have had to submit every kind of leave only through HRMIS, and paper leave applications are no longer accepted. Absence without an approved leave request on the portal is treated as unauthorised absence. That directive was issued by Deputy Secretary (Staff) Ali Nawaz Channa to district health officers, medical superintendents and executive directors of hospitals across the province.
The system has already been put to considerable use. More than 700 leave applications were processed and approved through HRMIS during September and October, according to the Health Department, and a portal for employee promotions and transfers is being added to the system. The registration drive now under way is the next step in the same effort, since a leave system can only work properly when every employee it covers is registered and their records are complete. The ten-day deadline is therefore less a new policy than the enforcement of one that has been taking shape since late summer.
The HRMIS push sits within a wider digitisation effort in Sindh’s health sector. On October 20, Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho launched an electronic medical record system at 18 basic health units, with a target of reaching 150 healthcare centres by February 2027 and all primary healthcare centres in the first quarter of 2028. The same programme includes digital registration and geographic mapping of Lady Health Workers and daily monitoring of community health services through a mobile application. Taken together, these steps show a department trying to replace paper files and informal record keeping with systems that can be checked, audited and followed up.
Non-Compliance Will Lead to Action
The department has warned that employees who fail to register within the given period will be considered absent from duty, and disciplinary action will be taken against them for not following official orders. The message has been sent to all directors, executive directors, district health officers and medical superintendents of hospitals, who will be responsible for making sure the staff under them comply. That chain of responsibility means the order will be followed up at every level, from the department’s own offices down to the hospitals where most of the staff are posted. Employees who are unsure about the process, or who are having difficulty uploading their documents, would be well advised to seek help from their offices now rather than waiting until the deadline is about to pass, since the consequences of missing it are plainly set out and the department has shown it is prepared to enforce them.
