Employees of the Punjab Rural Support Programme turning up on a hot day have staged a peaceful demonstration at the Faisal Chowk against a decision by the Punjab government to lay off over 5,000 of them. Protestors blocking off the main road traffic on Wednesday condemned the decision that also called or making fresh recruitment in their place and chanted anti-government slogans.
The irate protestors castigated the Punjab government over issuing a notification to disaffiliate basic health units prompting many on contract to lose jobs. The contract made in 2004 by the former Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam government for 14 districts ends on June 30. The notification said over 5,500 employees of the programme, including doctors, dispensers, lady health visitors and midwives, had been laid off. The Punjab government shortly came after Health Adviser Khawaja Salman Rafique pledged his government would consider the issue on humanitarian grounds and said the unemployment had never been his government policy.