KARACHI, Dec 18: Following a 38-day march in which they covered more than 700 kilometres from Kashmore to Karachi, the paramedical staff working for the government-run healthcare centres in Sindh staged a sit-in at the Karachi Press Club on Saturday.

Before the sit-in, a rally was held during which the paramedics raised slogans in support of a salary structure for them. The paramedics who were leading the march later visited the Chief Minister's House and presented a statement of demands. In the memorandum, the paramedical staff pointed out that the doctors and specialists working for the health department were regularly promoted. However, the paramedical staff often retired in the same grade in which they were appointed.

The paramedical staff, they said, represented the backbone of any healthcare system that could not function properly without their proper participation and utilization.

According to the statement, a salary structure had been formulated in 1998 which was rejected by the authorities due to several reasons. Since then the paramedics had been protesting against the treatment meted out to them, stated a press release.

Long marchers claimed that hundreds of workers hailing from different parts of the province participated in the rally while a number of vehicles carrying activists were stopped at Hyderabad and Karachi Tool Plaza, adds PPI.

They condemned government's apathy towards them and demanded to approve the draft of new service structure immediately.