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KARACHI: The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation head office at the Civic Centre was damaged on Thursday during a protest demonstration staged by contract employees, who alleged they were baton-charged by the security staff though their protest was peaceful.
The protesters said a large number of employees associated with KMC hospitals staged the demonstration to seek regularisation of their services after the municipal commissioner failed to honour his last week's commitment.
The employees later decided that work at the OPDs of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, the Karachi Institute of Health Diseases and 17 other health facilities of the KMC would remain suspended until their demand was met.
The employees had converged on the Civic Centre to stage a protest demonstration but “some of them turned unruly and vandalised furniture and windows” of the KMC offices located on the ground floor, said KMC spokesperson Ali Hassan Sajid while speaking to Dawn .
He said the issue related to over 1,374 contract employees, including doctors and paramedics, in BPS 1 to BPS 19 and associated with the KMC health department.
The protesters said some of them had been working on a contract basis for more than six years but they had not been made permanent. They added that they had ended their previous protest on the assurance of municipal commissioner Matanat Ali that they would be paid salaries and their services would be regularised within a week, but it did not happen.
According to the protesters, the Civic Centre security staffers manhandled the participants though they were peaceful and baton-charged them. At least six of the protesters were injured when a stampede-like situation was created.
The protesters claimed that they dispersed peacefully after the municipal commissioner spoke to them. But they had decided that they would only do emergency duties and suspend routine work in protest against the 'highhandedness of the security staff'.
Mr Ali again met the protesting employees on Thursday and told them that a summary regarding their service regularisation had been moved, said the KMC spokesperson.
The protesters were also informed that whenever the government would decide the issue it would be communicated to them, Mr Sajid said.
He told Dawn that KMC Chief Security Officer retired captain Altaf had sent an incident report regarding the damage caused to the KMC offices in the Civic Centre to the New Town police station.
Responding to Dawn queries, Syed Naeemuddin, an assistant medical superintendent at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, said the employees were staging a peaceful protest seeking regularisation of their services. “But the civic centre security staffers attacked them, leaving at least six protesters injured.”
He said the protesters had decided not to provide any services in the OPDs and the wards. They would only do emergency services.
He said that the protest would continue until their demands were met.
He agreed that work at the KMC's 19 health facilities, including the two major hospitals, would be affected by their protest.
Mr Naeemuddin said some of the 1,374 employees had been working for more than six years here. While the services of those working in other provinces for a period less than six years had been regularised, they were being ignored, he added.
