Cops, nurses clash as latter call for regularisation

The police clashed with protesting nurses outside the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday leaving one nurse with a broken leg and several others injured. Nurses, appointed during the coronavirus pandemic, were demonstrating with placards and slogans outside the KPC calling for regularisation.

The protestors attempted to march towards the Chief Minister’s House but were met with barricades placed by the police to stop them. The protesting nurses met with a clash with law enforcers as they pushed past the barriers.

The protest was called off after negotiations with the provincial health secretary.

According to the protestors, the nurses were first not paid their salaries and now the government was not regularising their employment. Over 1,200 nurses were appointed by the provincial health department for 90 days, they said, maintaining that the health department had promised they would be regularised but has not come through thus far.

The protestors claimed that new appointments are being made but nurses hired before are not being regularised.

Later, a delegation of six nurses met with the Sindh health secretary, who assured them that a bill would be presented before the Sindh Assembly and their issue would be resolved. The decision of regularising nurses may be taken after interviews by the Sindh Public Service Commission, the health secretary told the nurses.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2020.