ISLAMABAD: The unprecedented strike at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) entered its 12th day on Saturday, creating problems for thousands of patients.

Stakeholders in the health sector believed that because of the ongoing court cases against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, his family members and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar the strike could be called off as most of the politicians were busy in these cases.

The employees have been on the strike demanding that the Pims hospital should be separated from Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto University.

Since its affiliation with the university a few years ago the status of the hospital employees, who were civil servants, has been gradually changing.

They had been offered to become employees of the university. Quotas allocated for their children in jobs are being withdrawn.

The employees have held a number of protests and strikes but despite assurances from the government their issues are yet to be addressed.

A senior doctor of Pims, requesting anonymity, said for a few years the employees had held protests and strikes but they lasted less than a few days.

“In the past whenever calls for strikes were given, not only the ministry concerned but also the Prime Minister Office became active to end the strike,” he said.

“However, this time all prominent politicians are busy in the court cases against the former prime minister and his family. The hospital is under the Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) but the minister, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, is preoccupied with the court cases,” he said.

“During the last 12 working days, around 120,000 patients could not be provided healthcare facilities while about 60,000 laboratory tests remained pending at the hospital. Besides, 2,000 operations were postponed,” he said.

Spokesperson for the Pims Employees Association Dr Asfandyar Khan told Dawn that even in the past the minister for CADD had given assurances that the issue would be addressed but to no avail.

“Even then, we announced that the OPD, which used to open at 8am, will start working at 11am every day. Because of the confusion about the strike, patients are not coming to the OPD,” he said.

“We will continue our strike from 8am to 11am every day and on October 18 will decide our future strategy,” he said.

However, another official of Pims said the flow of patients would not resume as long as the problem remained unresolved.

However, an official of CADD dispelled the impression that Dr Chaudhry remained busy in court cases against the Sharif family.

“The minister held meetings with the Pims staff for at least five times and also took them to the Ministry of Law and Justice and arranged their meeting with the Law Minister Zahid Hamid,” he said.

“Unfortunately, some of the representatives of the employees have been using the strike as a last option believing that their pressure on the government would decrease if the strike was called off.”

He said the minister and Secretary CADD Nargis Ghaloo were making efforts and hopefully the issue would be addressed in the coming week.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2017