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Friday, November 25, 2011

Protest of nurses in Lahore

nurses protest
The nurses in the province are onto the streets for the last two days rather than in hospital wards to nurse the patients despite high-handed tactics being applied on them to call off their movement, including pelting of eggs and stones by PML-N-supported traders on Thursday and MSF goons on Friday, respectively.

The egg-pelting incident took place on The Mall in front of the Punjab Assembly, which is sitting on the bill meant for revision of pay for the protesters for years, while The Mall and Hall Road traders took the law in their hands to implement the Lahore High Court decision imposing a ban on holding protest rallies on the road of bustling business centres.

The LHC decision was in fact passed after the Punjab government, in violation of its own decision, held a protest rally against the federal government of the Pakistan People’s Party about a month ago from Nasir Bagh, the starting point of The Mall.

It was the same road from where the traders bodies of The Mall, Hall Road and adjacent roads brought out rallies to join the main rally at Nasir Bagh and no one including the commuters on these roads protested against them since they were already off the roads leading to Nasir Bagh knowing well that they would find no way to go if they got stuck in the procession.

According to some sources in The Mall and Hall Road Traders’ Association, the decision to pelt the protesting nurses with rotten eggs had in fact been taken after the leadership disapproved various other suggestions including beating the protesters with batons and throwing water with the help of fire brigade tankers.
The Young Nurses Association continued protest on the second consecutive day on Saturday to press for the demand of special pay package, revised service structure and regularisation of ad-hoc nurses.
Ignoring threats of show-cause notices, the nurses managed to come out of hospitals even after closure of main gates and staged a sit in outside the Chief Minister’s camp office in Model Town and outside Lahore Press Club, causing massive traffic jams on Ferozepur Road and on the arteries in the close vicinity of LPC.
Taking notice of hours long protest, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif constituted a committee to negotiate with the protesters and submit proposal for fulfilling their legitimate demands. The committee comprising Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, Parliamentary Secretary Health Dr Saeed Elahi, Advisor to Chief Minister Begum Zakiya Shahnawaz and other parliamentarians will meet a delegation of nurses on Saturday (today) and submit report for resolving the issue.
Dr Saeed Elahi held two-hour long meeting with the protesting nurses on Friday and informed them about the development that resulted in postponement of ongoing protest. He said that the protesters have nominated 14 nurses as their representatives. He told that three important demands of nurses have come to fore in the meeting which would be presented before the committee on Saturday (today). He said that the demands included provision of special pay package, regular and timely promotion and quashing of FIR registered against nurses during the protest.
Prior to the meeting with Dr Saeed Elahi, parliamentarians from the PPP and PML-Q, Young Doctors Association, Pakistan Medical Association and various human rights organisations joined the protest to express solidarity and support demands of nurses.
Ironically, no action has so far been taken against the traders association and their activists who in their quest to implement the LHC order of a ban on protest rallies on The Mall, violated the law for the sake of their business against the hapless nurses who chose to come on streets as a last resort to secure a respectable living for them and their families.

If the nurses have pelted stones on the traders and their shops, the law would have swiftly come into action, sending many of the protesters behind the bars.

There is a complete silence over the incident as nothing has happened since the victims in the case are hapless nurses. The custodian of ‘Takht-e-Lahore’ (Rulers of Punjab) has yet to issue a condemnation statement while the superior judiciary, famous for taking suo motu notice on as small a case as of Attiqa Odho’s alleged possession of bottles of liquor, has yet to take note of the matter which finds a space in headlines of all news channels and newspapers.

Talks between the Punjab government and nurses remained inconclusive as they continued their strike on the second day in public sector hospitals on Friday and held protest demonstrations, rallies and sit-ins in the City against the governmentís apathy to resolve genuine issues of a special pay package and time-scale promotions of the community.

Under the banner of the Young Nurses Association (YNA), nurses from all public sector hospitals, including DHQ and THQ hospitals of Lahore, organised demonstrations outside their hospitals and gathered to join the central sit-in at the Lahore Press Club.

Earlier, nurses from Lahore General Hospital and Childrenís Hospital gathered outside the Model Town residence of Sharifs’ family and blocked Ferozepur Road from 10am to 12noon, which badly affected the traffic flow on the busiest road of the City. Later, they marched for the main sit-in, which continued till the evening. The protesting nurses were holding banners and placards, inscribed with slogans and demands. They were also raising slogans to give loud and clear message to the government to accept their genuine demands.

The nurses in other districts of Punjab also observed a complete strike in their hospitals and showed complete solidarity with the nurse community for fulfilment of their demands. The Young Doctors Association (YDA), Rawalpindi, also supported nurses and joined their strike in hospitals. The nurses said that the government had completely ignored a vital component of healthcare as nurses were supporting the health system in hospitals in the province.

The rallies and day-long sit-in at Lahore Press Club badly disrupted traffic and massive traffic jams were witnessed on all adjacent roads and arteries causing great inconvenience to pedestrians, commuters and motorists.

Besides, the healthcare system was also badly affected in hospitals as patients could not get required treatment services in outdoor, indoor and operation theatres in the absence of nurses. “All kinds of elective surgeries were postponed in all hospitals,” hospital sources said.

The nurses asked the government to immediately announce a special pay package and time-scale promotion for senior nurses and withdrawal of an FIR against them, which was registered after Thursdayís sit-in at Faisal Chowk in front of the Punjab Assembly. They said that salary packages of doctors and nurses were not compatible even in the same grades and demanded salaries equal to doctors in the same scales.

Meanwhile, no Punjab government representative reached the spot to hold negotiations with the nurses, however, PPP Punjab President Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, Samiullah Khan, PML-Q MPA Seemal Kamran, Ayesha Ahad and civil society representatives also joined them to express solidarity with their just demands of service structure and special pay packages.

The Health Department officials held negotiations with the nursing representatives but remained inconclusive, as nurses announced their protest for the third consecutive day on Saturday (today). The nurses made it clear that the strike in hospitals, protest demonstrations, rallies and sit-ins would continue till fulfilment of their demands not just in letter but in spirit too. nurses protest
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