ISLAMABAD: With no immediate solution to the ongoing crisis in sight, the protesting employees of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) have setup a permanent sit-in camp within the premises of the hospital to press the government for restoration of the erstwhile status of the hospital.
The protesting employees announced to hold a massive public rally on Saturday which they said would be attended by people from all walks of life, including local government representatives, traders and civil society activists.
The PIMS employees have been protesting for the last 18 days for acceptance of what they termed a one-point agenda, demanding the separation of the largest public-sector hospital of the federal capital from the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU).
They said that the protest camp would be setup till acceptance of their demands, vowing that they would accept nothing less than restoration of PIMS to its original status.
Talking to Pakistan Today, a senior doctor, named Chaudhry Muhammad Riaz, said that they were going to hold a huge gathering in the premises of the hospital to raise their voice against the injustice being done to the employees of the hospital.
He said that people from different walks of life were coming to the protest camp to express solidarity with the protestors, which indicated that their fight was not limited to medical staff but also covered the larger interests of the general public. The government should fulfill our demands at the earliest so that the protesting PIMS employees could focus on their duties.
The protestors had announced earlier that they would adopt an alternative strategy if their demands were not met by October 18, including closure of Polyclinic and National Institute of Rehabilitative Medicine (NIRM) hospitals. However, they revisited their strategy and decided to set up a permanent sit-in camp at the hospital, where congregations would be held round the clock.
It merits mention here that the PIMS employees had relaxed their call for complete boycott and instead started holding a three-hour token strike since October 2, to ease the woes of the patients visiting the facility om a daily basis.
PIMS All Employees’ Association for Restoration Spokesman Dr Asfandyar Khan said that the protest camp would continue till the acceptance of their demands, and requested people from all walks of life to join their public rally to force the government to accept their due demands.
Dr Asfandyar said that they have been peacefully protesting for the last 18 days which was their constitutional right, but unfortunately, the government high-ups showed no interest to resolve the issue amicably.
He reiterated his resolve that the protest would continue till passage of the amendment bill from the parliament or issuance of presidential ordinance, adding that they always served the poor patients, but wrong official policies disturbed the working of the entire medical facility.