KARACHI: Pakistan Teh­reek-i-Insaf (PTI) parliamentary leader in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh on Wednesday warned of staging a march towards Chief Minister House if the “genuine dem­ands” of nurses are not accepted.

According to details, Sheikh along with PTI workers visited the protest camp of nurses in front of the Karachi Press Club (KPC) to express solidarity with them. He talked with Sindh Nurses Alliance president Aijaz Kaleri and announced to support their demands. PTI lawmakers Dr Saeed Afridi and Raja Azhar were also present.

Talking to the media, Sheikh said he had also participated in the protest of nurses a few months ago. He asked PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari if these nurses are not our daughters. He said the government had promised to resolve their problems, but the finance secretary was not sending their summary for approval.

He said the commissioner and secretary health were also telling “lies” to the protesting nurses. He said the PPP MPAs should have visited the protest camp of nurses.

He said that the government was yet to set up AIDS treatment centre for children in the constituency of Faryal Talpur. He said the Sindh health department was apathetic towards the basic health issues of the people of the province.

He said if a notification for acceptance of the demands of nurses was not issued by the evening, tomorrow morning they would march towards the CM House along with the protesting nurses.

Sheikh said he had submitted resolutions on the AIDS issue in Sindh but they were not being allowed to debate the issue in Sindh Assembly. He said the resolutions of ruling party for getting released “thieves and dacoits” were allowed for deb­ate immediately. He said the fed­eral government had handed three hospitals to Sindh on the request of Sindh Health Minis­ter Azra Pechuho. He said running a hospital is a small thing; we will soon run the whole province of Sindh.

Saeed Afridi said for last 13 days the nurses had been protesting, but the government had turned deaf ear to their cries. He said the torture of police on nurses recently was shameful. He said the hospitals of rural areas of Sindh lack basic facilities. He said the PTI would resolve all burning problems facing people of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2019