BAHAWALPUR, April 15: Some 300 student nurses of Bahawal Victoria Hospital on Thursday staged a sit-in on the nursing school premises to protest against the non-payment of their stipends for the last five months.

The protesting nurses said that they were under severe financial crunch owing to the non-payment of their outstanding stipends, which came to around Rs3,400 per nurse. Principal Mrs Jamila Rana said that earlier the nursing school expenditures were borne by the district government, which had withheld the payments of student nurses.

She said now for the last one month, the nursing school was being administratively controlled by the Quaid-i-Azam Medical College, which was ready to pay their arrears of one month.

She said we would pay their outstanding stipends if the district government released the required funds. The examinations of fourth year classes will commence within a fortnight and after that the outgoing nurses will be posted to other districts.

PROTEST: In pursuance of the decision of the All Pakistan Clerk Association, the subordinate staff of all government offices on Thursday began their protest drive for the acceptance of their demands regarding better pay scales.

The APCA members observed a complete strike and hoisted black flags atop their offices. Addressing a protest meeting at the College of Technology, APCA leaders declared that they would proceed in accordance with their protest programme announced by their central body till the acceptance of their demands.