Young doctors resume strike across Sindh seeking pay raise notification

KARACHI: The Young Doctors Association (YDA) on Wednesday resumed their province-wide strike at public hospitals, despite the Sindh government’s accepting their demand to increase their salary, ARY News reported.

The doctors want the provincial government to issue an official notification for the pay raise. “The protest will continue till the notification is issued,” they said outrightly.

The Out Patient Department (OPD) and other operations in the hospitals across the province, including Karachi’s Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Dr Ruth Pfau Hospital and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases will remain suspended due to the strike, however they would continue performing their duties in emergency and other wards.

“The Sindh law minister and health minister did not fulfill their promises,” the YDA said.

The medics said a summary which would bring their salaries and other perks at par with their counterparts in Punjab awaited Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah’s approval and lamented that they were not being informed about the reason behind delay in its approval.

Apart from the pay rise, they also wanted the vacant positions at the hospitals to be filled.

The YDA had withdrawn its call for strike after the Sindh government had assured them of fulfilling their demands, however, no official notification had been issued so far.