LAHORE: Lady health workers (LHWs) from across Punjab on Thursday called off their sit-in protest at Faisal Chowk after the Punjab government promised to set up a committee to look into their grievances.
Announcing their decision to end the protest, LHW Union’s Punjab President Rukhsana Anwar said that they had held negotiations with Punjab Law Minister Basharat Raja and he had assured them that the government had setup a committee to address their concerns.
“It is a historic day for us as our 25-year-old issue has been resolved,” she said, adding that the first meeting of the committee will be held on Monday.
The Law Minister thanking LHWs president said that the Chief Minister had directed to find a reasonable solution of the issue while he had directed to reverse the decision for abolishing LHWs’ cadre. “Rather the CM has sought to make the cadre better than previous one.” He added. The Minister said that the government believed in protecting the rights of public employees and solve their problems on a priority basis. He also thanked the representatives of LHWs for accepting government’s offers and ending the sit in.
LHWs from different districts of Punjab had been protesting at Faisal Chowk, also known as Charing Cross Chowk, for the last four days demanding a pay raise, proper service structure and scale upgradation.
Commuters were the ultimate sufferers of the protest, barricades were placed on Queen’s Road and Lawrence Road to deal with the sit-in, resultantly, huge traffic diversions ended up inconveniencing commuters.
