You’re not alone, mayor tells medics

Waseem Akhtar appealed to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to issue funds for the payment of dues

KARACHI: The doctors and paramedics fighting the pandemic in hospitals shouldn’t consider themselves to be alone, said Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar.

“We appreciate the doctors and paramedics and we will fulfill all our responsibilities to them,” he asserted, while distributing 150 personal protective equipment kits donated by al-Khidmat Foundation to medical personnel on Saturday. “We will do whatever we can for their safety and to help them.”

Akhtar appealed to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to issue funds for the payment of dues as well as a 15 per cent increment in the salaries of doctors and paramedical staff serving on the frontline. Claiming that the matter of salaries had not yet been resolved, he insisted that it was not the time to engage in politics. “We have to deal with these difficult times together and the hardship will soon end.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2020.