Paramedics give 15-day ultimatum to Sindh govt for health allowance

KARACHI: Paramedical Staff Joint Action Committee Sindh on Wednesday gave 15-day ultimatum to Sindh government for approval of health professional allowance and meeting their other genuine demands; otherwise, they will observe a Sindh-wide protest.

Speaking a press conference at the Karachi Press Club(KPC), the representatives of Sindh Paramedical Staff Welfare Association (SPSWA), Pakistan Paramedical Staff Association (PPMSA), All Sindh Peoples Paramedical Staff Welfare Association, Medical AID Committee and Peoples Paramedical Staff Association said the Sindh government has already announced giving health professional allowance to the staff of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center and National Institute of Child Health but the paramedical staff of reset of Sindh government hospitals are deprived of this and other allowances.

Central leader of Joint Action Committee, Sindh, Akhlaq Ahmed Khan said doctors, nurses and pharmacists have been availing all allowances including health professional allowance while only paramedics are not being paid these allowances in Sindh province. He claimed that paramedical staff of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have already been receiving health and other allowances but Sindh government has reluctant to give allowances to the paramedics.

He said paramedics had requested the government of giving them health and other allowances of paramedical staff on several occasion but no positive response has been received in this regard so far. He said paramedics’ representative bodies do not support a strike or protest in hospitals which doubles the miseries of patients but unfortunately the high-ups of Sindh health department are compelling the paramedics to observe strike in favour of their demands.

They gave two-week ultimatum to the Sindh government for acceptance their genuine demands; otherwise, the paramedics will observe two-hour token daily strike from February 16 to February 20, 2018 by wearing black armbands and then go for a complete boycott of duties from February 21 to February 25, 2018 throughout Sindh province.