KARACHI: Nurses at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) held a protest on Tuesday and boycotted patient services against an administrative move.

Sources said the protest led to the cancellation of all operations scheduled for the day as well as severely affected services at the intensive care units and all wards.

Speaking to Dawn, a senior hospital staffer representing the Young Nurses’ Association said that the administration had violated seniority rules while making appointments on two top nursing posts — chief nursing superintendent and deputy/assistant nursing superintendent.

“It never happened in the history of JPMC that the staff on junior positions got the top nursing posts. We asked the administration to explain why it violated the seniority list,” he said, adding that the list was approved by the hospital administration and the provincial government.

The sources said that the demonstration was so strong that the administration was forced to hold talks with the protesting nurses within a few hours and release another letter “per the seniority list”.

“Yes, the protest adversely affected patient services but the whole system did not collapse because we have medical students and paramedical staff [to manage any crisis like situation],” said JPMC’s spokesperson Dr Waqas Khan.

He confirmed that a new letter was released following a meeting of the administrative officials with nurses’ representatives.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2026