KARACHI: A number of lady health workers (LHW) on Thursday staged a sit-in near CM House against the non-payment of salaries and other dues, causing a traffic jam on Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road and other major roads in the downtown for hours.

The protest ended after the protesters were assured that the government would address their issues within a week.

Organised by the All Pakistan Lady Health Workers Welfare Association, the sit-in began in the afternoon when women workers from different parts of the city started converging on the PIDC traffic intersection while a section of Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road leading to CM House was blocked by police for security reasons.

“Despite offering all options and making several requests to the government, we failed to convince it,” said Bushra Arain of the association. “They [Sindh government] made promises, extended assurances and came up with announcements but all in vain. The poor lady health workers do this job to earn a livelihood, which is not being assured by the government.”

The protest led to a severe traffic jam on Dr Ziauddin Ahmed, Club Road and Sharea Faisal.

Within an hour, the situation affected traffic on some major roads including I.I. Chundrigar Road, M.R. Kayani Road, Rafiqi Shaheedi Road, Sarwar Shaheed Road, Court Road, Fatima Jinnah Road, Old Outram Road, Hasrat Mohani Road, Wood Street, Shahrah-i-Kamal Ataturk, Burnes Road, Belassis Street, Shahrah-i-Liaquat and Nicol Road.

Hours later the provincial health secretary on the directives of Health Minister Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar arrived at the protest venue and held talks with the lady health workers. After hour-long talks, the sit-in was finally postponed till Monday on the government assurance that the issue would be addressed within a week.

“The government has assured us again to take up the issue within a week. We have made our point clear that we will no more trust the government and we will converge here again on March 14 if the authorities fail to fulfil their promises,” said Ms Arain.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2016