Pakistan Gender News Voice of Gender News From Pakistan
I WAS shocked to see on TV the treatment meted out to nurses of Punjab hospitals while they were demonstrating to have a pay raise. They were dragged by their hair by the police. Besides, activists belonging to the PML(N) pelted eggs on them.
Earlier, they had been promised a pay raise but Shabaz Sharif decided against it even though these poor nurses are under-paid and overworked.
A nurse lost her life in Lahore while doing her duty to serve dengue patients who were coming in by the dozen to the hospital.
Her family was not given any compensation.
While the chief minister of Punjab claimed that dengue was controlled due to his efforts, he seems to have ignored the role of doctors and nurses who were at the forefront where treating patients and taking care of them was concerned.
Instead of being thankful to these mothers and sisters of the nation, the top brass of the PML (N) chose to use violence against them.
Nurses and other women were dragged by the police in front of the Chief Minister House. They were harassed even though they were demonstrating peacefully.
It seems like doctors and nurses deserve no respect in Pakistan. What could have prevented this procession in the first place was to have given the nurses a pay raise along with some allowances for nursing courses which is their right.
Nurses in Pakistan are taught outdated courses from the 1950s. There are not enough institutions to train them, so their pays are not satisfactory.
DR K. S. YOUSAFZAI
Peshawar
Source: DAWN
