RAWALPINDI, May 23: The paramedical staff of three allied hospitals of the garrison city on Wednesday observed a strike and staged a protest demonstration to press the government for the regularisation of the services of daily wage workers.

The paramedics demanded that the services of daily wage employees should be regularised, the paramedics from BPS-1 to BPS-17 should be given pay protection and the service structure of the employees from BPS-1 to BPS-4 should be revised.

More than 120 daily wage employees of three hospitals gathered at Liaquat Bagh on Benazir Bhutto Road. They blocked the road for an hour. The protesters were holding placards and banners inscribed with their demands.

Allied Hospitals Paramedical Staff Association (APA) President Khawaja Iftikhar and other office-bearers, while addressing the protesters, denounced the Punjab government for exploiting the paramedics by denying their due rights.

They said that the paramedics had been in trouble but neither provincial bureaucracy nor chief minister seemed to be serious in resolving their problems. They also demanded regularisation of the services of contract employees immediately.

They said that the matter pertaining to revised service structure had also been under consideration of the government since long but no final decision was yet to be taken which had multiplied the miseries of the poor workers.

APA office-bearers said that the government’s indifferent attitude was compelling them to go on a complete strike in the three teaching hospitals. They warned that in such a case, the entire responsibility would be upon the government.