Sitting in: Paramedics to hold province-wide protest campaign

KARACHI:

The paramedical organisations of Sindh, under the banner of Paramedical Staff Joint Action Committee Sindh, will hold a sit-in for an indefinite time at Karachi Press Club on August 18, during the first phase of their province-wide protest campaign.

Paramedical organisations are demanding inclusion in the service structure for the staff that was previously left out, said Liaquat Mastoi, the information secretary of All Sindh Peoples Paramedical Staff Welfare Association Sindh. They are also demanding health allowance, high-risk allowance and rural initiative allowance for Sindh’s paramedics on the same pattern as federal areas and the other three provinces, as well as the implementation of the son-quota recruitment in the health department. Office-bearers of Sindh Paramedical Staff Welfare Association (SPSWA), Pakistan Paramedical Staff Association Mumtaz Jatoi Group, All Sindh Peoples Paramedical Staff Welfare Association Sindh, Functional League Paramedical Staff Association and Medical AID Committee have pledged their support to the demonstrators and will also participate in the protest, said Mastoi.

SPSWA patron-in-chief Ikhlaq Ahmed Khan said that paramedics from cities and towns across the province will take part in the demonstration on Monday. The next phase of the campaign will involve paramedical organisations boycotting their duties throughout Sindh from August 25, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2014.