LAHORE, Nov 25: Defying police barricades, nurses continued their protest on Friday by staging a sit-in outside the Lahore Press Club, throwing traffic out of gear for hours.

Around 400 nurses assembled on the road around 11am and continued agitation till 5pm. Earlier, they had gathered on Ferozepur Road around 9am to march towards the Chief Minister’s House at Model Town but the police foiled their attempt. They changed their venue and reached the press club.

The protest largely remained peaceful except for a few minutes when the nurses got infuriated when a police van mistakenly hit their colleague and injured her. The nurses exchanged a word with the police and tried to ‘attack’ the driver.

The nurses, carrying placards, raised slogans against the Punjab government for denying what they said a promised pay package announced by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in May this year.

No government functionary attended to the protest even on the second day. Some leaders from the opposition joined the demonstration and remained there for a few hours to express solidarity with the nurses.

PPP and PML-Q leaders and representatives of civil societies and the Young Doctors Association Pakistan, including Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, Samiullah Khan, Shaukat Basra, Ayesha Ahad Malik, Dr Rana Sohail and Abdullah Malik, were prominent among the participants.

The opposition leaders assured the nurses that they would take up their issue at the Punjab Assembly level. They said thrashing of nurses at Faisal Chowk on Thursday instead of addressing their long-standing demands had exposed the claims of good governance.

The opposition leaders alleged that the Punjab government used PML-N-backed traders of The Mall to attack the protesting nurses.

The seven-hour demonstration outside the LPC caused a great deal of inconvenience to the motorists.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government brought the representatives of the nurses to the table for negotiations through Punjab Nursing Director-General Munawar Sultana. A meeting was organised at the DG Nursing office, where MPA Dr Saeed Elahi informed the nurses that the chief minister had taken notice of their demands and constituted a committee headed by Law Minister Rana Sanaullah.

Young Nursing Association President Rozeena told Dawn that the association office-bearers would meet the chief minister on Saturday (today) at 11am and apprise him of their legitimate demands.

She said the next schedule for strike and demonstration would be announced shortly after the meeting. She said the health department had denied them a special pay package announced by the CM in May, which forced them to take to the street.

It was another hard day for patients at the public-sector health facilities in Lahore and other parts of Punjab.

COMMITTEE: The committee comprises Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, MPA Dr Saeed Elahi, Adviser to Chief Minister Begum Zakiya Shahnawaz, health and finance secretaries and other parliamentarians. It will meet a delegation of nurses at 11am on Saturday, says a handout.

Dr Saeed Elahi said the protesters had nominated 14 nurses as their representatives for the committee. The demands of nurses include provision of special pay package, regular and timely promotion and quashing of FIR registered against the protesters.

He said the committee would submit its recommendations to the chief minister for final consideration after Saturday’s meeting.