Punjab: Protest erupted in the Punjab province of Pakistan as health department employees, including doctors, paramedics, nurses, and clerical staff, took out rallies against the provincial government’s decision to outsource basic health units (BHUs) and rural health centres (RHCs).
A protest rally in Okara from City Hospital to the Press Club saw participants carrying banners and chanting slogans against the privatisation policy, terming it as economic exploitation of low-grade health employees, local media reported on Sunday.
Protesters, including members of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) and the Punjab Rural Health Employees Association, claimed that seven BHUs in Sahiwal had already been outsourced, with plans to privatise 12 more.
Organised by the Grand Health Alliance (GHA), the protest was part of a province-wide movement spanning 40 districts. In Okara, healthcare workers boycotted outpatient departments (OPDs) and indoor wards at DHQ City Hospital, DHQ South City, THQ Renala, and RHCs in Bama Bala and Dhars Dhuliana, Pakistan’s leading newspaper, Dawn reported.
The protest against the privatisation policy of the Punjab government also continues in the Chakwal and Talagang cities of Punjab province in Pakistan. On the first day of the protest, on Saturday, a large number of Basic Health Units (BHUs) employees gathered in front of the office of the Chakwal Health Department CEO and raised slogans.
Later, in the second phase of the protest, the employees, demonstrating outside the office of the Chakwal Deputy Commissioner, claimed that they had worked in these centres for 30 years, places that were once shelters for drug addicts and stray animals.
“While Punjab is facing privatisation and our jobs are being taken away, employees in the other three provinces are even receiving advance salaries for Eid,” a protester told the leading Pakistani daily, The Express Tribune.
During the protest, female workers were seen crying and pleading with the Chief Minister of Punjab to save them from unemployment. They emphasised that they were not demanding pensions, additional benefits, or salary increments but only wanted to keep their jobs, according to the local media reports.
(IANS)
