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Young Paramedics warn of province-wide agitation

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Young Paramedics warn of province-wide agitation

Provincial office bearers of Young Paramedics Association visit protest camp in Mithi to announce solidarity.   

By GR Junejo

Mithi, Tharparkar

The Young Paramedical Association (YPA) announced here solidarity with some four dozen lower-grade employees of Sindh Health Department, agitating for release of salaries, unpaid since 2017, who continued their hunger strike on 21st day on Monday.

The protesting employees have setup their camp outside local press club and are observing hunger strike on daily basis. The provincial level office bearers of Paramedical Association, who visited the camp, warned of launching province-wide movement if the government failed to resolve the issue of agitating employees.

YPA chairperson Faiza Khan, Abdul Jabbar Kunbhar, Ghaffar Rind, Ghulam Shabbir Leghari and other paramedic leaders while talking to newsmen said that the paramedics and other employees are frontline soldiers of health department who had been performing duties during emergency situations. They urged the health department authorities to release salaries to the employees or in the first phase they will spread the scope of agitation to entire district of Tharparkar and later across the province and finally sit-in would be staged in front of Chief Minister’s House in Karachi.

“We will continue protest and hunger strike unto justice,” Fahim Junejo, Ali Nawaz Rahmoon, Loang Samo, Alji Bheel and other protesters also told newsmen.

“We have been performing regular duties since appointment and even performed during the emergency situations like Covid-19, Anti-Polio Campaigns etc. but the department has stopped their salaries,” they told.

According to protesting employees, they were appointed in the year 2015 but later the department cancelled their fitness certificates, which they challenged in Sindh High Court. The court had ordered Sindh Health Department for reinstatement of employees in 2017. Following the court order, the department allowed 49 employees to rejoin but didn’t release salaries since then. The Chief Minister had also issued directives to the health department for releasing salaries of 49 employees in 2019 but the authorities of health department didn’t pay heed to SHC orders and the Chief Minister’s directives.

The protesting employees told that they have been passing through hard times depending on loans but now their families are at the verge of starvation.

They appealed to the Sindh High Court and the Chief Minister to take notice and resolve their issue.

The protesting employees include dispensers, gardeners, watchmen etc.

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