The nurses and paramedical staff of Sindh government hospitals on Tuesday called off their 10-day long strike after acceptance of their demands by the government. The protesting paramedical staff ended their strike following the visit of Sindh Health Secretary Hashim Raza Zaidi to their protest camp outside Karachi Press Club, during which he assured them of resolving their issues.
Nearly 5,000 nurses and paramedical staff were campaigning for a Rs 10,000 allowance for food and clothes, time-scale promotions, increase in stipend for nursing school students, as well as professional health allowance and high risk and hard workers allowance. Leaders of nurses and paramedics, Aijaz Kaleri and Hassan Pathan told media that they had ended their protest after government officials assured them their demands would be met within days.
General Secretary Provincial Nursing Assembly, Karachi Chapter, Jahanzaib Khan said that the nurses of the entire province were on protest since March 28 after police baton charged and used water cannons to disperse a protest rally of nurses. He said they called on Sindh Health Secretary and other officials who assured them that their demands would be fulfilled in next couple of days and notification would also be issued in this regard.