LARKANA: Police detained around 30 sacked employees of the Integrated Health Services (IHS) when they gathered outside Naudero House of the Bhutto family on Friday to hold a protest demonstration against their retrenchment. A source said in the evening that they were set free following the provincial health minister’s intervention.
Led by Rashid Soomro, Shaukat Bhutto, Imdad Abbasi, Aamir Kalhoro and others, the protesters were raising slogans against Sindh government’s indifferent attitude vis-a-vis their appeals for reinstatement or absorption in the health department.
The fresh demonstration, in a series of protests they have been holding for several weeks, was planned to draw the attention of Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho towards their issue on her visit to Naudero House.
Police moved into action and started picking up the protesters, who had spread a mat on a pavement outside the house to hold a sit-in. They forced about 30 of them into mobile vans and took them to the Naudero police station. A local reporter present there said the police took away only male protestors and asked the female ones to leave the venue. The minister, the reporter said, arrived and entered the house while the police action was still under way.
Leaders of the protesters condemned the police action saying they were denied their democratic right to protest against their retrenchment and demand reinstatement. “Is our act a crime?” they asked.
“Where shall we go to seek relief against this unjust and hasty sacking? Neither the chief minister nor the health minister [are] ready to hear us.”
The protesters are among several hundred doctors, paramedics and other staff hired by the IHS under its 10-year agreement with Sindh government on operating specified rural and basic healthcare centres as well as hospitals in the interior of Sindh. They have been sacked on account of an abrupt cancellation of the agreement in July, ie in the middle of the validity period, done on public-private partnership basis.
“Our families are facing starvation and we are unsure about our future ... for years together, we have been working in government health facilities run by IHS and without any question having been raised over our performance. Instead of appreciating our services, we have been shown the door,” said the protesters’ leaders. They maintained that they should have been taken on board before cancellation of the agreement in order to avoid retrenchment. “Those at the helm of affairs chose to shunt us out ... this is against natural justice and in contravention of human rights, they said.
Taking notice of the police action after the news was aired on different TV channels, Health Minister Pechuho called a group of five protesters to Naudero House for negotiations, sources said.
Apparently on her intervention, the police let off all the detained protesters.
Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2021
