ISLAMABAD: Owing to the sufferings being faced by the patients, employees of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) have decided to review their protest plan and have decided to hold a token protest tomorrow from 8 am to 11 am, and would also hold a major protest on Monday at D-Chowk to press for their demands.
The medical and the paramedical staff of the PIMS on Friday continued their protest for the sixth consecutive day on Saturday under the umbrella of the ‘All Employees’ Movement for Restoration of PIMS’ in support of their demands to separate PIMS from the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU).
All the Outpatient Departments (OPDs) of the hospital remained non-functional due to which patients faced great hardships. Despite the fact that some headway had been made on the issue, the employees are not ready to call off their strike unless the hospital is separated from the university.
The employees demanded that Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi should ensure that a bill, tabled in the National Assembly in 2014 for the separation of the hospital from the university, is passed during the current session of Parliament.
In 2014, MNA Tahir Iqbal had tabled a bill in the lower house of Parliament to separate the hospital from the university which is still pending despite the fact that the deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif on November 26, 2016, directed to pass the bill.
A senior official told Pakistan Today that an important meeting of the faculty members and heads of various departments of SZABMU took place on Saturday.
He said that it was a two-point agenda meeting to condemn the manhandling of the Vice-Chancellor Dr Javed Akram at the hands of the PIMS’ employees and to express solidarity with the employees protesting for the sixth consecutive day in support of their demands.
He also said that the participants expressed great disenchantment over the incident which took place with the VC and vowed that all the faculty members, heads and young doctors would stand by him in future. He added that the faculty members and heads also visited the protesting PIMS employees and expressed solidarity with them and ensured their full support on the issue since their demands were genuine.
It is pertinent to mention that on Friday the PIMS employees forced SZABMU VC Dr Javed Akram out from his office and locked his room, and said that they would not allow the VC to sit in his office unless their demands were met.
However, PIMS Employees Association spokesperson Dr Asfandyar Khan told Pakistan Today that as per schedule, the senior faculty of PIMS met on Saturday and emphasised that the faculty would continue to follow the single agenda of PIMS’ separation from the university, in solidarity with rest of the hospital’s employees.
He said that it was also decided by all that no member of the PIMS faculty will attend the faculty meeting called by the VC on Monday. He also vowed that they would not budge an inch from their agenda.
However, he said that they changed the protest plan as a goodwill gesture to ease the woes of the patients, besides providing another chance to the government to settle the issue once and forever.
However, Asfandyar said that the VC’s office would remain locked and he would not be allowed to perform his duties, adding that they would hold the protest at D-Chowk from Monday.
The strike is affecting services at the hospital because the OPDs, clinical services and scheduled surgeries have been suspended. Hundreds of surgeries have been cancelled in the main operation theatre, children hospital, MCH and burn centre in the last six days and only the emergency services are functional.
